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TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 



TWELVE 
NAVAL CAPTAINS 



Being a Record of Certain Americans who 
made themselves Immortal 



BY 

MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL 

author of 

^'the sprightly romance of marsac," " the history 

of the lady betty stair," "children of 

destiny," "throckmorton," 

"little jarvis," etc. 



WITH PORTRAITS 




NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Copyright, 1897, 
By Charles Scribner's Sons. 



^nibcrsitg Press : 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



PEEFACE 

In offering this book to the youth of the coun- 
try, the writer does not wish it understood as a 
comprehensive record of American naval captains 
from 1776 to 1815. It is merely a selection of 
twelve commanders who had great opportunities, 
and were equal to those opportunities, from the 
long list of brave and deserving officers, especially 
during the brilliant period from 1798 to 1815. 

The writer desires to express the deepest obli- 
gations to Cooper's Naval History and Naval 
Biographies. If those noble and beautiful books 
were read at the present day as they deserve to be 
read, there would be little reason for any modern 
author writing upon the same subjects. 

A faithful effort has been made to copy Cooper's 
admirable impartiality. He says, justly, in speak- 
ing of the captures on each side made in 1812-15, 
" No vessel was unworthily given up." It is per- 
haps unfortunate for the good-will which should 



PREFACE 

exist between kindred nations, like the United 
States and Great Britain, that the naval and mil- 
itary glory of the early years of the republic 
should have been gained almost wholly against 
Great Britain. But an unprejudiced view will 
soon show that much of the fierceness of the 
fighting was due to the closeness of the tie of 
blood. There was but a slight foreign element 
among the Americans who sustained themselves 
so gallantly from 1776 to 1815 ; and this foreign 
element, instead of modifying those Anglo-Saxon 
characteristics which are the common heritage 
of Americans and British alike, was brought into 
subjection to the Anglo-Saxon standards of laws, 
customs, and language. The Americans of Amer- 
ican stock take the liberty of believing and say- 
ing that every generation nurtured under Ameri- 
can institutions is a distinct advantage ; and 
those Americans whose ancestors at their own 
pleasure cast off the rule of England have no 
grudge against the mother country, but rather 
the utmost good-will and cordial friendship. 
The youth of the country should realize that a 
ceaseless whine against England is very un- 
American. The Americans never whined. They 
made a stout protest, followed by a bold defiance 



PREFACE 

and a great and successful fight, then shook 
hands and made it up. 

The writer offers this book with diffidence, 
but trusts that the inherent virtue in the men 
and events treated of may make the record of 

interest. 

MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL. 



y 



CONTENTS 

PAaE 

PAUL JONES 1 

RICHARD DALE 28 

THOMAS TRUXTUN 42 

WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 53 

EDWARD PREBLE 83 

STEPHEN DECATUR 102 

RICHARD SOMERS 130 

ISAAC HULL 145 

CHARLES STEWART 167 

OLIVER HAZARD PERRY 182 

THOMAS MACDONOUGH 192 

JAMES LAWRENCE 208 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Paul Jones Frontispiece 

Richard Dale Facing page 28 

Thomas Truxtun " 42 ^. 

William Bainbridge " 53 

Edward Preble " 83 

Stephen Decatur " 1^2 

Richard Somers " ^^^ 

Isaac Hull " 1^5 

Charles Stewart " ^^^ 

Oliver Hazard Perry " 1^2 

Thomas Macdonough " 1^2 

James Lawrence " 208 



PAUL JONES 

American history presents no more picturesque 
figure than Paul Jones, and the mere recital of 
his life and its incidents is a thrilling romance. 
A gardener's boy, he shipped before the mast at 
twelve years of age, and afterward rose to be 
the ranking officer in the American navy. His 
exploits by land and sea in various parts of the 
world ; his intimacy with some of the greatest 
men of the age, and his friendships with reigning 
sovereigns of Europe ; his character, of deep sen- 
timent, united with extraordinary genius and ex- 
treme daring, — place him among those historical 
personages who are always of enchanting interest 
to succeeding ages. Paul Jones himself foresaw 
and gloried in this posthumous fame, for, with 
all his great qualities, he had the natural vanity 
which so often accompanies the self-made man. 
He lacked the perfect self-poise of Washington, 
who, having done immortal things, blushed to 
have them spoken of, and did not deign to appeal 
to posterity. Paul Jones was continually appeal- 
ing to posterity. But his vanity was that of an 
1 1 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

honest man, and he was often stung to assert- 
iveness by the malignities of his enemies. That 
these malignities were false, and that he was a man 
of lofty ideals and admirable character, is shown 
by the friends he made and kept. Dr. Franklin, 
Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris, and Lafayette 
lived upon terms of the greatest intimacy with 
him ; Washington esteemed him, — and the good- 
will of such men places any man in the category 
of the upright. 

Nothing in the family and circumstances of 
Paul Jones indicated the distinction of his later 
life. His father, John Paul, was a gardener, at 
Arbigland, in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, where 
Paul Jones was born in 1747. He was named 
John Paul, for his father ; but upon his taking up 
his residence in Virginia, in his twenty-seventh 
year, he added Jones to his name, — for some rea- 
son which is not now and never has been under- 
stood, — and as Paul Jones he is known to history. 
The Pauls were very humble people, and Paul 
Jones's childhood was like the childhood of other 
poor men's sons. Boats were his favorite and 
only playthings, and he showed from the begin- 
ning that he had the spirit of command. He 
organized his j^layfellows into companies of make- 
believe sailors, which he drilled sternly. The 
tide rushes into the Solway Firth from the Ger- 
man ocean so tremendously that it often seems 
like a tidal wave, and the boy Paul Jones had 



PAUL JONES 

sometimes to run for his life when he was wading 
ont commanding his miniature ships and crews. 
Close by his father's cottage is the sheltered bay 
of the Carsethorn, where, in the old days, ships 
for Dumfries loaded and unloaded. Deep water 
is so close to the shore that as the ships worked 
in and out their yardarms seemed to be actually 
passing among the trees that cling stubbornly to 
the rocky shore. It was the delight of the boy 
Paul Jones to perch himself on the highest point 
of the promontory, and to screech out his orders to 
the incoming and outgoing vessels ; and the ship- 
masters soon found that this bold boy was as good 
as a pilot any day, and if they followed his direc- 
tions they would always have water enough under 
the keel. 

The only school which Paul Jones ever attended 
was the parish school at Kirkbean, and that only 
until he was twelve years old. But it was char- 
acteristic of him, as man and boy, to learn with 
the greatest eagerness ; and the result is shown in 
his letters and language, which are far superior to 
the average in those days. The habit of applica- 
tion never left him, and he was a hard student all 
his life. 

There were many mouths to feed in the little 
cottage at Arbigland, and in Paul Jones's thir- 
teenth year he was bound apprentice to a ship- 
master. His first voyage was to Fredericksburg 
in Virginia, where he had a brother, William Paul, 

3 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

living, — a respected citizen. His time ashore was 
spent with this brother, and so well did he con- 
duct himself that when William Paul died some 
years later he left his estate to this favorite 
younger brother. There were, however, many 
years of toil before Paul Jones, and hardships 
and buffetings, and even injustices that sank deep 
into his sensitive soul. It is said that he was at 
one time on a slave-ship, the slave-trade being 
then legalized throughout the world ; but, hating 
the life, he quitted ^his ship, and the traffic too. 
When he was about twenty years old, he found 
himself without employment in Jamaica. He 
embarked as a passenger on the John, — a fine 
brigantine, owned by a shipping firm in his native 
shire. On the voyage home both the captain and 
the first mate died of yellow fever. The young 
passenger — John Paul, as he was then called — 
took command of the brigantine, and brought her 
safely to her port. The owners rewarded him by 
making him captain and supercargo of the John. 
This shows that Paul Jones was not only a capa- 
ble seaman, worthy of command at twenty years 
of age, but of integrity and steady habits as 
well. 

In his twenty-fourth year occurred an event 
which gave him great anguish, and was probably 
the reason of his leaving his native land. While 
in command of a vessel in Tobago, he had his car- 
penter. Maxwell, flogged for some offence. This 



PAUL JONES 

was the common mode of punishment in those 
days. Maxwell complained to the Vice-Admiralty 
Court, and the affair was investigated. The Court 
examined Maxwell, and dismissed his charges 
against Paul Jones, as frivolous. It is noted, 
though, that Paul Jones expressed sorrow for 
having had the man flogged. Maxwell shipped 
on another vessel, but died a week or two after- 
ward. This put a much more serious aspect on 
the matter. There was some talk of a prosecu- 
tion for murder ; but it was shown that Maxwell's 
death had nothing to do with the flogging, and it 
was dropped. Nevertheless, the effect upon a 
nature, at once arrogant and sensitive, like Paul 
Jones's, was exquisitely painful. It is likely that 
this case was the origin of the one weak point in 
Paul Jones's tremendous naval genius : he was 
never a good disciplinarian, and he seems always 
to have hesitated too long before administering 
punishments, and of course severer punishments 
were needed thereby. 

Upon his return to Scotland, he was coldly re- 
ceived by his friends and neighbors. To Paul 
Jones's mind this coolness assumed the form of a 
persecution. He left his native country with re- 
sentment in his heart against it, although he kept 
up affectionate relations with his family. Many 
years after, when he was one of the celebrities of 
his age, he speaks in a letter of his grief at learn- 
ing of his mother's death, especially as he had 

6 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

found that several sums of money which he had 
sent her had never reached her. 

He came to Yirginia in 1773, and took posses- 
sion of the property left him by his brother, which 
with his own savings gave him a competence. 
Little is known of the particulars of his life from 
1778 to 1775 ; but late researches show- that his 
friendship with Thomas Jefferson, and with other 
persons of prominence in A^irginia and North 
Carolina, then began. Although his origin was 
humble, his manners, tastes, and feelings led him 
naturally into the most distinguished society, and 
at a very early period in his career he is found 
associated with persons of note. 

On the first outbreak of hostilities with the 
mother country Paul Jones offered his services to 
the Continental Congress, and his name headed 
the list of thirteen first lieutenants in the navy 
appointed in December, 1775. Perhaps no man 
had stronger natural and personal inclinations 
toward the revolutionary cause than Paul Jones. 
In his native country he was poor, obscure, and 
perpetually barred out by his low estate from 
those high places to which his vast ambition 
aspired. In America, under a republican form 
of government, he was as good as any man, pro- 
vided only he were worthy ; and the fixed rank 
of a naval officer would give him standing in 
Europe among those very persons w^ho would 
otherwise have regarded him with contempt. 

6 



PAUL JONES 

His commission was obtained through Mr. 
Joseph Hewes. a member of Congress from 
North Carolina, and the celebrated Robert Morris, 
who was then at the head of the Marine Com- 
mittee of Congress. The influence of Thomas 
Jefferson was also in his favor. 

At this time his true career may be said to 
have begun. He was then twenty-eight years 
old, of " a dashing and officer-like appearance," 
his complexion dark and weather-beaten, and his 
black eyes stern and melancholy in expression. 
He had a slight hesitation in his speech which 
disappeared under the influence of excitement. 
His manner with sailors was said to be peculiarly 
winning, and he was, no doubt, highly successful 
in dealing with those characters which can be 
gained by kindness and indulgence ; but with 
that part of mankind to whom severity is a neces- 
sity, he does not seem to have been so well 
adapted, and the evidences of a firm and consis- 
tent discipline are wanting. When he came to 
command a ship of his own, — which he did very 
shortly, — he was extremely polite to the midship- 
men, frequently asking them to dine with him in 
the cabin, but likely to blaze away at them if they 
were not carefully and properly dressed for the 
occasion. One of his officers, presuming upon 
Paul Jones's indulgence, ventured to be insolent, 
and got himself kicked down tlie hatchway for it. 
It is said that when a midshipman on the topgal- 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

lant yard was inattentive to his duty as a lookout, 
Paul Jones himself would gently let go the hal- 
yards, and the unlucky midshipman would come 
down the yard on the run. 

Paul Jones was extremely temperate in his 
habits, and was naturally fond of order and deco- 
rum. He had fixed religious principles, and, like 
Washington, lie considered a chaplain a useful and 
even a necessary officer. A letter of his is extant 
in which he says he would like a chaplain on 
board who should be accommodated in the cabin, 
and always have a seat at the cabin table, " the 
government thereof should be entirely under his 
direction." He was a tireless student by night, 
his days at sea being occupied, when cruising, by 
exercising his officers and men in their duty. 

His first orders, as an American naval officer, 
were as flag lieutenant on the Alfred, of twenty- 
four guns. Commodore Hopkins's flagship. On 
this ship Paul Jones claims to have hoisted with 
his own hands the original flag of the Revolu- 
tion — the pine-tree and rattlesnake flag — the 
first time it was ever displayed. This may well 
be true, as such an act is thoroughly in keeping 
with the romantic sentiment of Paul Jones's 
character; and he says, " I think I feel the more 
for its honour " on account of that circumstance. 

Congress had assembled in the Delaware River 
a fleet of five small vessels, and it was with 
ardent hopes that Paul Jones joined this little 

8 



PAUL JONES 

squadron. In a very short while, though, he dis- 
covered that Commodore Hopkins was very much 
disinclined to " go in harm's way," to use one of 
Paul Jones's favorite expressions, and his wrath 
and disgust flamed out without any concealment. 
The object of the cruise was to capture a lot of 
stores, left unprotected by the British at the 
island of New Providence. By Commodore Hop- 
kins's blundering the governor of the island had 
time to save most of the stores. The Commodore 
finding himself among the keys and islands of 
the Bahamas, seems to have been afraid to go 
away and afraid to stay where he was. Paul 
Jones, however, taking a pilot up to the foretop- 
mast head with him, piloted the Alfred to a safe 
anchorage. To crown all, the five vessels ran 
across a little British frigate, the Glasgow, off 
Newport, and after a smart cannonade the Glas- 
gow succeeded in slipping through Commodore 
Hopkins's fingers and getting back to Newport. 

Paul Jones's rage at this was furious, and it 
became impossible for him to serve in the same 
ship with Commodore Hopkins, who was shortly 
afterward censured by Congress, and within the 
year dismissed from the navy. In the summer of 
1776 Paul Jones was given the command of a lit- 
tle sloop, the Providence, mounting only twelve 
four-pounders, but a fairly smart and weatherly 
vessel. He improved her sailing qualities so 
that she could log it faster than a great many 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

better ships. With this little sloop he was em- 
ployed in conveying military stores from New Eng- 
land to Washington's army on Long Island ; and 
as the coast and the sounds swarmed with the 
cruisers of Lord Howe's fleet, this was a difficult 
and daring undertaking. But in difficulty and 
daring Paul Jones always shone, and he succeeded 
so as to win the admiration and personal regard 
of Washington, as well as the approval of Con- 
gress. In the autumn he made a more extended 
cruise, during which he captured several valuable 
prizes, and showed his courage and seamanship 
by manoeuvring boldly before the Solebay frigate 
and then running away from her. The Solebay 
thought she had bagged the Providence, when the 
little sloop, suddenly weathering her, ran directly 
under her broadside, where the guns could not 
be brought to bear, and went off before the wind 
while the heavy frigate was coming about. On 
another occasion he was chased by the Milford 
frigate. Finding the Providence was fast enough 
to play with the Milford, Paul Jones kept just out 
of reach of the heavy cannonade of the Milford ; 
and every time the frigate roared out her heavy 
guns, a marine, whom Paul Jones had stationed 
aft on the Providence, banged away with his 
musket in reply. This amused and delighted the 
men, and when Paul Jones was ready he ran 
away from the frigate, leaving her still tlumder- 
ing away in his wake. These little events had a 

10 



PAUL JONES 

good effect on his officers and men, showing them 
that they had a man of dash and spirit for their 
captain. When his cruise was up, he received 
full recognition of his services by being appointed 
to command a splendid frigate then building in 
Holland for the American government. Mean- 
while he was ordered to take command of the 
Ranger, a sloop-of-war, mounting eighteen light 
guns, then fitting for sea at Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire. On the very day he was appointed 
to her, June 14, 1777, Congress adopted the stars 
and stripes as the national ensign, and Paul Jones 
always claimed that he was the first man to hoist 
the new flag over a ship of war when he raised it 
on the Ranger in Portsmouth harbor. 

The Ranger was weakly armed and poorly 
fitted. Her cabin furnishings were meagre enough, 
but there were two bookcases full of books provided 
by the captain. The Ranger sailed from Ports- 
mouth in November, 1777, and after an unevent- 
ful voyage, arrived safely at Nantes in France in 
December. Leaving his ship in charge of the 
first lieutenant^ Simpson, Paul Jones started for 
Paris to confer with the three American Com- 
missioners, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and 
Arthur Lee. He bore a letter to them from the 
Marine Committee describing him as " an active 
and brave commander in our service." On reach- 
ing Paris, a sharp disappointment awaited him con- 
cerning the Holland frigate. Great Britain, which 
n 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

was not then at war with either France or Hol- 
land, although on the verge of it, had made com- 
plaints about the frigate, and it had been passed 
over to the French government to prevent its 
confiscation. Paul Jones had a partial compen- 
sation, however, in winning the affectionate re- 
gard of Benjamin Franklin, and the friendship 
that ever afterward subsisted between the im- 
petuous and sentimental Paul Jones and the 
calm and philosophic Franklin was extremely 
beautiful. 

Despairing of getting any better ship than the 
Ranger, Paul Jones set himself to work to im- 
prove her sailing qualities ; it is a striking fact 
that he improved every ship he commanded, be- 
fore he was through with her. 

Being ready to take the sea, he determined to 
secure a salute to his flag from the splendid French 
fleet commanded by M. de La Motte Piquet. He 
took the Ranger to Quiberon Bay, and at once sent 
a letter to the French admiral, announcing his 
arrival, and another to the American agent at 
L'Orient. Paul Jones's dealings with this agent 
are laughable, as many of his transactions were. 
He began, as usual, with the most formal polite- 
ness ; but as soon as there was any hesitation shown 
in complying with his requests, which it cannot be 
denied were perfectly sensible, he would blaze 
out, and carry his point by the bayonet, as it were. 
The agent did not understand the importance of 

12 



PAUL JONES 

the salute, and although he dined on board the 
admiral's ship the day the request was made, he 
failed to mention it to the admiral. This infuri- 
ated Paul Jones, who wrote him a letter in which 
he said, "I can show a commission as respect- 
able as any the French admiral can produce," 
and finally declared that unless the salute were 
allowed, he would leave without entering the up- 
per bay at all. 

His determined attitude had its effect. The 
French admiral agreed to salute the Ranger, and 
to make sure that it was done in broad daylight, 
so there could be no misunderstanding about it, 
Paul Jones kept his ship in the lower bay until 
the next day. The French admiral paid the 
American commander the compliment of having 
the guns manned when the Ranger sailed through 
the double line of the French fleet, and when the 
French guns roared out in honor of the American 
flag, it meant that France was from that day 
openly, as she had been for some time secretly, 
committed to an alliance with the struggling colo- 
nies. Seeing that nothing was to be hoped for in 
the way of a better ship, Paul Jones, like all truly 
great men, determined to do the best he could with 
the means at hand. So, on an April evening in 
1777, he picked up his anchor and steered the lit- 
tle Ranger straight for the narrow seas of Great 
Britain, the Mistress of the Seas, and the greatest 
naval power on earth. The boldness of this can 

13 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

scarcely be overestimated. The French admirals, 
with fifty-five ships of the line, hung on to their 
anchors, not caring to risk an encounter with the 
fleets of England, manned by her mighty captains 
and heroic crews ; but Paul Jones, alone, in a 
weak vessel, lightly armed, took all the chances 
of destruction, and bearded the lion in his den. 
He counted on the slowness of communication in 
those days, and all of those other circumstances 
in which fortune favors the brave, — and the 
result justified him. 

He cruised about' for several days, burning and 
destroying many merchant ships. He landed at 
St. Mary's Isle, in order to capture the Earl of 
Selkirk, but the bird had flown. His men became 
mutinous, because, contrary to the custom of the 
time, they were not allowed to loot the place. 
Paul Jones was forced to allow them to carry off 
some silver plate, which he afterward redeemed out 
of his own pocket, and returned to Lady Selkirk. 
He also landed at Whitehaven, and fired the ship- 
ping in the port, although he did not succeed in 
burning the vessels. But the desire of his heart 
was to find a ship of war, not too strong for him, 
with which he might fight it out, yardarm to yard- 
arm. This he found in the Drake, a sloop-of-war, 
carrying twenty guns, and lying off Carrickfer- 
gus. Like the Ranger, she was a weak ship ; but 
she carried brave men and a fighting captain, 
and when, on the afternoon of the 24th of April, 

14 



PAUL JONES 

the Ranger appeared off Carrickfergus, the Drake 
promptly came out to meet her. The tide was 
adverse, and the Drake worked out slowly, but 
her adversary gallantly waited for her in mid- 
channel, with the American ensign at her mizzen 
peak, and a jack at the fore. The Drake's hail, 
" What ship is that ? " was answered by the mas- 
ter, under Paul Jones's direction : " This is the 
American Continental ship Ranger. We wait 
for you and beg you will come on. The sun is 
but little more than an hour high, and it is time 
to begin." 

The Drake promptly accepted this cool in- 
vitation, and the action began with the great- 
est spirit. In an hour and four minutes the 
Drake struck, after a brave defence. She had 
lost her captain and first lieutenant, and thirty- 
eight men killed and wounded, and had made, 
as Paul Jones said, " a good and gallant de- 
fence." The Ranger lost two men killed and 
six wounded. On the 8th of May he arrived off 
Brest in the Ranger, with the American ensign 
hoisted above the union jack on the Drake. The 
French pilots vied with each other as to which 
should have the honor of piloting the two vessels 
through the narrow channel known as Le Goulet, 
and there was no question of a salute then, — 
every French ship in sight saluted the plucky 
little American. 

This daring expedition gave Paul Jones a great 

15 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

reputation in France. The French government, 
by this time openly at war with England, asked 
that Paul Jones remam in Europe to command a 
naval force to be furnished by France ; and he was 
justified in expecting a splendid command. But 
the maladministration of affairs in Paris left him 
a whole year, idle and fretting and wretched, as 
such bold spirits are, under hope deferred, and 
at last he was forced to put up with an old India- 
man, the Due de Duras, larger, but not stronger 
than the Ranger. He changed the name of this 
old ship to the Bon Homme Richard, out of 
compliment to Dr. Franklin, whose " Poor Rich- 
ard's Almanac" had just then appeared. She 
was the flagship of a motley squadron of two 
frigates besides the Bon Homme Richard; the 
Alliance, an American frigate commanded by a 
French captain, Landais, who was suspected to 
be crazy, and acted like a madman ; the Pallas, 
commanded by another French captain, Cottineau, 
a brave and skilful seaman ; and a cutter and a 
brig, neither of which was of consequence in the 
cruise. 

A number of American prisoners having been 
exchanged and sent to France, Paul Jones was 
enabled before he sailed to get about thirty 
Americans for the Bon Homme Richard. Every 
officer on the quarterdeck was a native Ameri- 
can except Paul Jones himself and one midship- 
man ; and the first lieutenant was Richard Dale, 

16 



PAUL JONES 

one of the most gallant seamen the American 
navy ever produced. He had lately escaped from 
Mill Prison in England. Paul Jones justly ap- 
preciated his young lieutenant, then only twenty- 
three years old, and the utmost confidence and 
attachment subsisted between them. 

The crew was made up of men of all nation- 
alities, including a number of Malays, and many 
of the fok'sle people did not understand the word 
of command. With this singular squadron and 
unpromising ship and crew Paul Jones set sail 
on the 15th of August, under orders to report at 
the Texel early in October. Great things were 
expected of him, but agonizing disappointment 
seemed to be in store for him. Landais, the 
captain of the Alliance, was mutinous, and 
the whole squadron seemed incapable of either 
acting together or acting separately. Twice 
Paul Jones sailed up the Firth of Forth as far 
as Leith, the port of Edinburgh, and the Edin- 
burghers made preparations to withstand this 
bold invader. Among the children who lay 
awake at night waiting for the booming of 
Paul Jones's guns, was a lad of ten years of 
age, — Walter Scott, who, when he was the great 
Sir Walter, often spoke of it. But both times 
the wind blew Paul Jones out to sea again, so 
that nothing was done in the way of a descent on 
Edinburgh. Many merchant ships were taken, 
and the coasts of the three kingdoms were 

2 17 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

alarmed, but so far no enemy in the shape of 
a warsliip had appeared. The time for the 
cruise to be up was fast approaching, and it 
seemed likely to end in a manner crushing to the 
hopes of Paul Jones, when, at noon on the 23d 
of September, 1779, the Bon Homme Richard 
being off Flamborough Head, a single ship was 
seen rounding the headland. It was the first of 
forty ships comprising the Baltic fleet of mer- 
chantmen, which Paul Jones had expected and 
longed to intercept. A large black frigate and 
a smaller vessel were convoying them; and as 
soon as the two warships had placed themselves 
between the fleet and the Bon Homme Richard, 
all the fighting ships backed their topsails and 
prepared for action. 

At the instant of seeing the two British ships, 
Paul Jones showed in his air and words the de- 
light his warrior's soul felt at the approaching 
conflict. His officers and crew displayed the ut- 
most willingness to engage, while on board the 
Serapis her company asked nothing but to be 
laid alongside the saucy American. 

The Serapis was a splendid new frigate, — 
" the finest ship of her class I ever saw," Paul 
Jones afterward wrote Dr. Franklin, — and carried 
fifty guns. It is estimated that her force, as 
compared to the poor old Bon Homme Richard, 
was as two to one. She was commanded by 
Captain Pearson, a brave and capable officer. 

18 



PAUL JONES 

At one o'clock the drummers beat to quarters 
on both ships, but it was really seven o'clock 
before they got near enough to begin the real 
business of fighting. Much of this time the 
British and Americans were cheering and jeer- 
ing at each other. The Serapis people pretended 
they thought the Bon Homme Richard was a mer- 
chant ship, which indeed she had been before she 
came into Paul Jones's hands, and derisively 
asked the Americans what she was laden with ; 
to which the Americans promptly shouted back, 
" Round, grape, and double-headed shot ! " 

At last, about seven o'clock in the evening, the 
cannonade began. At the second broadside two 
of the battery of eighteen-pounders on the " Bon 
Homme" burst, the rest cracked and could not 
be fired. These had been the main dependence 
for fighting the ship. Most of the small guns 
were dismounted, and in a little while Paul Jones 
had only three nine-pounders to play against the 
heavy broadside of the Serapis. In addition 
to this, the shot from the Serapis had made 
several enormous holes in the crazy old hull of 
the Bon Homme Richard, and she was leaking 
like a sieve, while she was afire in a dozen places 
at once. The crews of the exploded guns had no 
guns to fight, but they had to combat both fire 
and water, either of which seemed at any moment 
likely to destroy the leaking and burning ship. 
They worked like heroes, led by the gallant Dale, 

19 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

and encouraged by their intrepid commander, 
whose only comment on the desperate state of 
the ship was, " Never mind, my lads, we shall 
have a better ship to go home in." 

Below, more than a hundred prisoners were 
ready to spring up, and were only subdued by 
Dale's determined attitude, who forced them to 
work at the pumps for their lives. The Serapis 
pounded her adversary mercilessly, and literally 
tore the Bon Homme Richard to pieces between 
decks. Most captains in this awful situation would 
have hauled down the flag. Not so Paul Jones. 
Knowing that his only chance lay in grappling 
with his enemy and having it out at close quar- 
ters, he managed to get alongside the Serapis, 
and with his own hands made fast his bowsprit 
to the Serapis' mizzen-mast, calling out cheer- 
fully to his men, " Now, my brave lads, we have 
her ! " Stacy, his sailing-master, while helping 
him, bungled with the hawser, and an oath burst 
from him. " Don't swear, Mr. Stacy," quietly said 
Paul Jones, " in another moment we may be in 
eternity ; but let us do our duty." 

The Alliance lay off out of gunshot and quite 
inactive most of the time, but at this point she 
approached and sailed around the two fighting 
ships, firing broadsides into her consort, which 
did dreadful damage. After this, her captain, 
the crack-brained and treacherous Landais, made 
off to windward and was seen no more. 

20 



PAUL JONES 

The combat deepened, and apparently the Bon 
Homme Richard was destined to go down fighting. 
At one moment the two ships got into a position 
in which neither could fire an effective shot. As 
they lay, head and stern, fast locked in a deadly 
embrace, and enveloped in smoke and darkness as 
they repeatedly caught fire from each other, a 
terrible stillness fell awhile, until from the 
bloody decks of the Serapis a voice called 
out, — 

" Have you struck ? " 

To this Paul Jones gave back the immortal 
answer, which will ever mark him among the 
bravest of the brave, — 

" We have not yet begun to fight ! " 

Soon the conflict was renewed. The Serapis' 
heavy guns poured into and through the Bon 
Homme Richard's hull, but the topmen on the 
American ship kept up such a hurricane of de- 
struction on the Serapis' spar deck, that Cap- 
tain Pearson ordered every man below, while 
himself bravely remaining. A topman on the 
Bon Homme Richard, taking a bucket of hand 
grenades, lay out on the main yard, vv^hich was 
directly over the main hatch of the Serapis, and, 
coolly fastening his bucket to the sheet block, be- 
gan to throw his grenades down the hatchway. 
Almost the first one rolled down the hatch to the 
gun-deck, where it ignited a row of cartridges 
left exposed by the carelessness of the powder 

21 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

bojs. In an instant came an explosion which 
seemed to shake the heavens and the ocean. 

This was the turning-point. The men in the 
Bon Homme Richard's tops climbed into those of 
the Serapis, the yards of the two ships being in- 
terlocked, and swept her decks with fire and shot. 
Dazed by the explosion, and helpless against the 
American sharpshooters, the courageous men on 
the Serapis saw themselves conquered, and Cap- 
tain Pearson himself lowered the flag which had 
been nailed to the mast. Lieutenant Dale, swing- 
ing himself on board the Serapis' deck, received 
the captain's surrender ; and thus ended one of the 
greatest single ship fights on record. The slaugh- 
ter on both ships was fearful, and the Serapis' 
mainmast went by the board just as she was given 
up. But the poor Bon Homme Richard was past 
help, and next morning she was abandoned. At 
ten o'clock she was seen to be sinking. She gave 
a lurch forward and went down, the last seen of 
her being an American flag left flying by Paul 
Jones's orders at her mizzen peak, as she settled 
mto her ocean grave. 

The Pallas, under Captain Cottineau, had cap- 
tured the Countess of Scarborough, which made a 
brave defence, and, in company with the Serapis, 
sailed for the port of the Texel, which they 
reached in safety. England scarcely felt the loss 
of one frigate and a sloop from her tremendous 
fleets, but the wound to the pride of a great and 

22 



PAUL JONES 

noble nation was severe. She caused the Dutch 
government to insist that Paul Jones should 
immediately leave the Texel. This he refused 
to do, as it was a neutral port, and he had a right 
to remain a reasonable time. The Dutch govern- 
ment then threatened to drive him out, and had 
thirteen double-decked frigates to enforce this 
threat, while twelve English ships cruised outside 
waiting for him. But Paul Jones kept his flag 
flying in the face of these twenty-five hostile ships, 
and firmly refused to leave until he was ready. 
Through some complication with the French 
government, he had the alternative forced upon 
him of hoisting a French flag on the Serapis, or 
taking the inferior Alliance under the American 
flag. Bitter as it was to give up the splendid 
Serapis, he nobly preferred the weaker ship, 
under the American flag, and in the Alliance, 
in the midst of a roaring gale on a black De- 
cember night, he escaped from the Texel, " with 
my best American ensign flying," as he wrote Dr. 
Franklin. 

The British government offered ten thousand 
guineas for him, dead or alive, and forty-two 
British ships of the line and frigates scoured the 
seas for him. Yet he escaped from them all, 
passed within sight of the fleets at Spithead, 
ran through the English Channel, and reached 
France in safety. He went to Paris, where he 
was praised, admired, petted by the court, and 

23 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

especially honored by royalty. The King, Louis 
XYL, gave him a magnificent sword, while the 
Queen, the lovely and unfortunate Marie An- 
toinette, invited him in her box at the opera, 
and treated him with charming affability. The 
first time he went to the theatre in Paris, he 
found a laurel wreath suspended over his seat. 
He rose quietly and moved away. — an act of 
modesty which was much applauded by all. 

Captain Pearson, on his return to England, 
received honors that caused many persons to 
smile, although he had undoubtedly defended 
his ship very determinedly. He was made a 
knight. When Paul Jones heard of this, he re- 
marked : " Well, he has deserved it ; and if 1 
have the good fortune to fall in with him again, 
I will make him a lord." 

Compliments were plenty for Paul Jones, too ; 
but no ship was forthcoming for him worthy of 
his fame, and at last, in 1780, he was forced to 
return to America in the Ariel, a lightly armed 
vessel, carrying stores for Washington's army. 

His services were fully appreciated in the 
United States. General Washington wrote him 
a letter of congratulation ; Congress passed a 
resolution of thanks in his honor, and gave him 
a gold medal ; and the French king made him a 
Kniglit of the Order of Military Merit. The 
poverty of his country prevented him from getting 
a ship immediately, and the virtual end of the 

24 



PAUL JONES 

war in 1781 gave him no further opportunity of 
naval distinction. 

He was employed in serving the naval interests 
of the country on this side of the ocean until 1787, 
when he went to Europe on a mission for the 
government. While there, he had brilliant offers 
made him to enter the service of the Empress 
Catherine of Russia, and to take charge of naval 
operations against the Turks. The nature of 
Paul Jones was such that any enterprise of adven- 
turous daring was irresistibly attractive to him. 
At that time his firm friend Thomas Jefferson 
was minister to France, and he advised Paul 
Jones to accept the offer. This he did, relying, 
as he said, on Mr. Jefferson to justify him in so 
doing, and retaining his American citizenship. 
He had an adventurous journey to Russia, stop- 
ping for a while on public business at Copenhagen, 
where he was much caressed by the King, Queen, 
and Court. He resumed his route by sea, and at 
one time in a small boat in the Baltic Sea he 
forced the sailors to proceed at the point of his 
pistol, when their hearts failed them and they 
wished to turn back. 

His connection with the Russian navy proved 
deeply unfortunate. He had to deal with per- 
sons of small sense of honor, who cared little for 
the principles of generous and civilized warfare. 
He was maligned and abused, and although he 
succeeded in clearing himself, he left Russia with 

25 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

disappointment and disgust. His health had be- 
gun to fail, and the last two years of his life, from 
1790 to 1792, were spent in Paris, w^here he was 
often ill, and more often in great distress of mind 
over the terrible scenes then occurring in France. 
He did not forget that the King and Queen had 
been his friends, and showed them attentions 
when it was extremely dangerous to do so. La- 
fayette, who had long been his devoted friend, 
soothed his last days ; and Gouverneur Morris, 
then minister to France, paid him many kind 
attentions. He made his will, naming Robert 
Morris as his executor, and then faced death 
with the same cool courage as upon the 
bloody and burning deck of the Bon Homme 
Richard. 

In the evening of the 18th of July, 1792, after 
calmly making his preparation, the end came. 
The National Assembly of France paid honor to 
his remains, and in the United States the news of 
his death was received with profound sorrow. 
Some years after, the Congress sent the St. Law- 
rence frigate to Europe, to bring back the body of 
Paul Jones to the United States ; but it was found 
that, according to the French custom, it had been 
destroyed by quicklime long before. 

Few men have been more warmly attacked and 
defended than Paul Jones ; but in the light of his- 
tory and of research it is altogether certain that 
he was a man of extraordinary genius and courage, 

26 



PAUL JONES 

of noble aspirations, and sincerely devoted to 
his adopted country; and at all times and places 
he made good his proud declaration : '' I have 
ever looked out for the honor of the American 
flag." 

The eulogy passed upon him by Benjamin 
Franklin was brief, but it embodied many vol- 
umes of praise. It was this : " For Captain Paul 
Jones ever loved close fighting." 



27 



RICHARD DALE 

If an example were needed of the superiority 
of character and courage over intellect, no more 
fitting person could be named than Commodore 
Richard Dale, — "that truth-telling and truth- 
loving officer," as Fenimore Cooper calls him. 
Nothing is more beautiful than the reverence 
which Cooper, a man of real genius, had for 
Richard Dale, whose talents, though good, were 
not brilliant ; and in this Cooper shows to lesser 
minds that intellect should ever pay tribute to 
character. Dale had nothing more than good, 
sound sense, but by the courage and constancy of 
his nature, by his justice, gentleness, and probity, 
he attained a standing of which a great intellect 
might have been proud. He was Paul Jones's 
first lieutenant during two years of daring adven- 
ture, and, like Cooper, Paul Jones, the man of 
genius, loved and admired Dale, the man of ex- 
cellence. The affection between the two was deep, 
and in Dale's old age he spoke of his old com- 
mander, then no more, affectionately as " Paul," 
— a strong testimony in the great captain's favor. 

Dale was born near Norfolk, in Virginia, in 
1756. His parents were respectable persons, but 

28 



RICHARD DALE 

not very well off, and Dale appears to have had 
but few advantages of education in his boyhood. 
He was, by nature, a daring and reckless speller, 
and the ingenuity and simplicity with which he 
could twist the letters of the alphabet into forms 
never before seen, was truly comical. In a letter 
to Paul Jones, describing some work he was do- 
ing on the bowsprit, he says, " the boulsprit was 
something Dificoult in Giting out." But no doubt 
the bowsprit was smartly handled, and got out all 
right. And when ''tow french voluntairs " de- 
serted. Dale says he " made haist " to send the 
" golly-boat " after them, and certainly got them, 
if it were possible to do so. But in spite of his 
spelling, he was educated in all the courtesies of 
life, his manners were polished, his person was 
handsome, and he was a daring and capable sea- 
man. Paul Jones said he always found Dale 
ready and willing to execute the most hazardous 
duty ; and this willingness to do his duty was the 
distinguishing characteristic of his whole life. 

When he was twelve years of age, he entered 
the merchant service and made a voyage with 
an uncle of liis, a sea-captain. Then began his 
career of hard knocks; and few men who sail 
blue water ever had more. He began by falling 
down the hold of his ship, and breaking most of 
his bones except those of his back and neck ; then 
followed experiences of being knocked overboard 
and battling in the sea an hour before being 

29 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

picked up ; of being struck by lightning and re- 
maining unconscious for hours. From the time 
he joined the navy of the colonies, he never was 
in action without being either wounded or cap- 
tured and sometimes both. Three times was he 
badly wounded, five times was he taken pris- 
oner; yet he managed to be in active service 
during a great part of the war, and at last died 
peacefully in his bed, at a good old age. 

Almost as soon as war was declared, Dale, then 
a fine young fellow of nineteen, enlisted in the 
feeble naval forces of the colonies ; and the very 
first time he smelled powder, in 1776, he was 
captured by the British and taken to Norfolk. 
There he was put on board a prison ship, where 
he found among the officers an old friend of his, 
a young Virginian, Bridges Gutteridge. Gut- 
teridge was a royalist, and, being a plausible 
fellow, he used his friendship with Dale to per- 
suade him that he was wrong in being in rebel- 
lion. Dale, who was young and inexperienced, 
was beguiled by his friend into turning royalist 
too, and actually enlisted upon a small British 
vessel. The first action in which he was engaged 
— a fight with American pilot boats — Dale met 
his usual fate, and was severely wounded. He 
was carried back to Norfolk, and in the long days 
of illness and convalescence he began to see his 
conduct in its true light, and bitterly repented 
of having fought against his country. He went 

30 



RICHARD DALE 

to work upon his friend Gutteridgc, and succeeded 
in converting him, after once having been con- 
verted by him, into a patriot. Dale then quietly 
bided his time to get back into the American 
navy, and, as he said, " I made up my mind if I 
got into the way of bullets it should never again 
be the bullets of my own country." 

It is indicative of the simple honesty of the 
man, that he never attempted to belittle or dis- 
guise this early lapse of his, and always expressed 
the deepest sorrow for it, alleging what a nature 
less fine would never have admitted, " I knew no 
better at the time." 

As soon as he was recovered, he managed to 
get aboard a merchant ship; to go to sea was 
the first step toward returning to the continental 
navy, which was the desire of his heart. He 
was captured as usual. But this time it was 
just the very sort of a capture that Dale desired, 
his ship being taken by the Lexington, a smart 
little cruiser under the command of Captain 
Barry, a brave officer, with whom Dale's life 
was afterward much connected. Dale lost not a 
moment in enlisting as midshipman on the Lex- 
ington, and the first time she backed her topsails 
at a British vessel she was captured, and Dale 
was a prisoner for the third time. 

An officer and a prize crew were thrown on the 
Lexington, and her captor, the Pearl, frigate, 
directed the prize to follow her. In the night 

31 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

the Americans rose on their captors, and retook 
the brig, carrying her into Baltimore. Soon 
after that. Dale was exchanged, and in January, 
1777, he found himself again on the Lexington, 
as master's mate. In March, the brig sailed for 
France, under Captain Henry Johnson, and cruised 
boldly in European waters. 

One night, in September, 1777, Captain John- 
son found himself close under the quarter of a 
well-armed British cutter. The two gallant lit- 
tle vessels opened fire with great spirit, and the 
Americans were getting decidedly the better of 
it, when their shot gave out. Dale and the other 
officers collected every scrap of iron about the 
ship that could be found or wrenched from its 
place to fire in the place of shot, but the un- 
equal fight could not last long ; the brig was 
given up after several of her officers and men 
had been killed, and Dale was a prisoner for the 
fourth time before he was twenty-one years old. 

In most of these revolutionary encounters the 
ships engaged were of trifling force, but the 
attack and defence were gallant and spirited in 
the highest degree, by both the Americans and 
the British, and no ship was given away on either 
side. 

The Lexington's officers and men were carried 
to England and thrown into Mill Prison, where 
they underwent the agonies of famine and priva- 
tion. Dale always spoke of those dreadful days 

32 



RICHARD DALE 

with horror, and told of being driven by hunger 
to kill a stray dog, which he, with the other 
prisoners, cooked and ate. 

The story of their sufferings got abroad and 
excited the indignation of many persons in Eng- 
land, who were jealous of the lienor of their 
country. They raised sixteen thousand pounds 
for American prisoners in England, and relieved 
all their material wants. But the Americans 
longed for liberty, and Dale and a few others 
determined to have it. They found a place under 
the prison walls through which a hole could be 
dug, and they began the almost impossible task 
of scooping out enough earth that they might 
crawl through to the other side. They could 
work only while exercising in the prison yard, 
and had to put the dirt in their pockets as they 
scooped it up. Nevertheless, after working for 
weeks at it, on a dark night in February, 1778, 
Captain Johnson, Dale, and several of the Lex- 
ington's crew crawled through, and found them- 
selves free at last of the prison walls. 

It is strange that men who could accomplish 
this should have been so unwise as to stay to- 
gether, but for a week the whole party wandered 
about the country at night, half starved and half 
clothed, in the worst of wintry weather. At last 
they concluded to separate, and Dale and a young 
midshipman cast their lots together. Their char- 
acter was soon suspected by people they asked for 

3 33 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

food and shelter, and pursuers were put upon 
them. They doubled on their tracks and got to 
London. They were still hunted for, and the 
house in which they were concealed was raided. 
Dale and his friend escaped into a shed close by. 
and lay concealed under straw for hours, until 
the pursuing party had left. They then slipped 
down to the docks, and were entered as hands on 
a vessel for Scotland. But Dale's usual ill-fortune 
followed him. The British navy, wanting able 
seamen, sent a press gang to the Scotch vessel, 
and Dale and his friend, unluckily attracting 
notice by their stalwart appearance, were im- 
pressed. In a little while they were found out 
to be American officers, and were sent back to 
Mill Prison. Forty days in the black hole of the 
prison followed. When this was over. Dale 
earned another forty days in it by singing rebel 
songs. He continued to sing his songs, though, 
while in the black hole. After a whole year in 
prison he made his escape under circumstances 
which he never revealed to the day of his death, 
except that he had on a complete suit of British 
uniform. How he got it remains a mystery, and 
from that day until his death, forty-seven years 
afterward. Dale kept the dangerous secret of the 
person who risked so much for him. It is sup- 
posed that he was provided liberally with money, 
and even with a passport, for he got out of 
England quickly and went to France. Here, at 

34 



RICHARD DALE 

L'Orient, he found Paul Junes, then fitting out 
the Bon Homme Richard, in which both the com- 
mander and Dale were to win immortality. 

Dale was then an active, handsome young 
fellow of twenty-three, and had seen more hard 
service than many officers of the highest rank. 
At the first glance Paul Jones saw his steadiness, 
coolness, and splendid qualities as a sea officer, 
and soon made him first lieutenant on the Bon 
Homme Richard. A deep attachment sprang 
up between these two kindred souls, and it is 
enough for Dale's reputation to know that he 
was a man after Paul Jones's own heart. 

In the summer of 1779 the Bon Homme 
Richard, old, crazy, and weakly armed, but 
carrying as much valor as any ship afloat, started 
upon her daring cruise in the narrow seas of 
Great Britain. Every day showed Paul Jones 
more and more the admirable character of his 
young first lieutenant, and in all the hazardous 
enterprises of that bold cruise Dale was the 
man who w^as always Paul Jones's right arm of 
strength. On the 23d of September, 1779, was 
fought the celebrated battle between the Bon 
Homme Richard and the Serapis. Dale was 
not only the first, but the only sea lieutenant on 
board, and proved himself altogether worthy to 
serve under the great captain who took the 
Serapis. He commanded the main deck, and, 
although his wretched and defective guns soon 

35 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

became disabled, his activity did not cease for a 
moment. 

At the most critical stages of the battle, when 
the leaking, burning, and helpless Bon Homme 
Richard seemed in extremity, the master-at-arms 
let loose more than a hundred prisoners, who 
came crowding up into the magazine passage. 
Dale, running below, with his pistol cocked, faced 
the mob, and, under Paul Jones's orders, set them 
to work at the pumps. He then returned to the 
deck, and so carried away was he with the ardor 
of battle that when, with his invariable fortune, a 
shot struck him in the leg, he was quite uncon- 
scious of it. As soon as Captain Pearson hauled 
down his flag. Dale claimed his right to go aboard 
the Serapis and receive her surrender. The 
mainyard of the Serapis hung cock-a-bill over 
the Bon Homme Richard's poop. A line hmig 
from the torn rigging, and Dale, seizing it, swung 
himself over, and landed alone on the Serapis' 
deck. The Serapis' officers and people did not 
all know the colors had been struck, and there 
was some fighting on the deck afterward. The 
Sei-apis' first lieutenant ran up just as Captain 
Pearson surrendered, and cried out, " Has she 
struck ? " meaning the Bon Homme Richard. 
Captain Pearson remained silent, and Dale re- 
plied, " No, sir, the Serapis has struck." 

The lieutenant, ignoring Dale, repeated his 
question to the captain, who shook his head. 

36 



RICHARD DALE 

The lieutenant after a moment asked that he 
might go below and stop the firing that had 
not altogether ceased ; but Dale, who was not 
taking any chances of losing the ship, politely 
refused, and at once passed the captain and 
his first lieutenant aboard the Bon Homme 
Richard. 

As soon as the Americans had possession of 
the Serapis, Dale sat down on the binnacle, 
overcome with exhaustion, after nearly ten hours 
of manoeuvring and fighting, two hours of the 
time the ships having been lashed together. He 
gave an order, and, rising to see it executed, 
measured his length on the deck. Then for the 
first time he knew that he was wounded. He 
managed to keep the deck, however, and his 
wound proved to be trifling. 

In all the accounts of the compliments show- 
ered upon Paul Jones and his officers at the 
Texel and afterward at Paris, Dale seems to have 
kept modestly in the background. His worth, 
however, was not overlooked, and his testimony 
that Captain Landais of the Alliance had acted 
treacherously toward the Bon Homme Richard 
during the fight with the Serapis was of weight 
in securing Landais' dishonorable discharge from 
the continental navy. 

While Paul Jones was enjoying the charms 
and splendors of Paris, Dale, who had little 
taste for such things, was "keeping ship" so 

37 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

well that the captain's 'absence was not felt. 
Like Paul Jones, he ardently longed to put to 
sea in a fine ship ; but both were doomed to 
disappointment when the Ariel was the best to 
be had. In her he sailed, with Paul Jones, for 
America, in 1781. Oif the . French coast they 
met with a storm so terrific that Dale always 
declared he considered they were in more dan- 
ger than at any time during the fight with the 
Serapis. In speaking of Paul Jones's coolness 
in such desperate straits, when every moment 
they seemed about to go to the bottom. Dale said : 
"Never saw I such coolness in such dreadful cir- 
cumstances as I saw in Paul Jones then." To 
the amazement of all, they escaped with their 
lives, although the Ariel was so crippled that 
they had to return to port, and it was many 
weeks before they could sail again. 

On reaching America, Paul Jones desired Dale 
to accompany him to Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, where the government directed him to su- 
perintend the building of a fine frigate then on 
the stocks. But Dale preferred active service, 
and joined the Trumbull frigate, going through 
with his usual experience, a hot fight with a Brit- 
ish ship and a severe wound. This time he varied 
the performance by being captured for the fifth 
time. He was soon exchanged, however, and the 
war ended shortly after. 

The navy of the United States ceased practi- 
se 



RICHARD DALE 

callj to exist at the close of the Eevolution, and 
Dale went into the China trade. He made a 
modest fortune, came ashore, and married a beau- 
tiful girl, the ward of his old commander Captain 
Barry. In 1794 the navy was reorganized, and 
Dale was the first captain who got afloat under 
the United States flag. He made several cruises, 
and in 1801 was made commodore of a fine 
squadron sent to the Mediterranean. His flag- 
ship was the President, and it was a sad coin- 
cidence that upon this very ship, in the war of 
1812, his son, a gallant young midshipman, re- 
ceived his death wound. 

The fine appearance of the American ships and 
the smartness of their officers and crews were 
generally admired, and Dale himself made friends 
and admirers by his manly and modest bearing. 
He spelled no better than ever, but his seaman- 
ship was beyond reproach. Once, on coming out 
of Port Mahon, the President struck upon a 
rock, and was in imminent danger of pounding 
herself to death. Commodore Dale was below 
when she struck. He instantly came on deck, 
assumed command, and by his coolness, nerve, 
and judgment, saved the ship. He had her tem- 
porarily repaired, under his own directions, at 
Port Mahon, but went to Toulon to have her put 
in dry dock. When the water was pumped out, 
and her hull exposed, the French naval officers 
were lost in admiration at the ingenious way in 

39 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

which, with crude appliances and materials, Dale 
had contrived to repair the damage. 

The great Nelson, wliile observing the manoeu- 
vring of this fine squadron under Commodore Dale, 
remarked : " Those American ships can, if they 
wish, make trouble for the British navy." 

Dale returned home, expecting to spend the rest 
of his active life in the navy. But in those days 
it seems to have been a common practice to treat 
the most distinguished and deserving officers with- 
out the least consideration of their rights or feel- 
ings. This happened to Commodore Dale. An 
affront being offered him by the head of the navy, 
he promptly resigned. He had two gallant sons 
who remained in the navy, however ; and one of 
these, his namesake, lost his life while gallantly 
fighting in the war of 1812. Dale retired to 
Philadelphia, and spent the rest of his days in 
honorable retirement. His old friend Captain 
Barry had come into possession of the splendid 
gold sword given Paul Jones by the King of 
France, and which Paul Jones's relatives had 
given to Robert Morris, and from him Captain 
Barry got it. On Captain Barry's death he left 
this sword, most wortliily and appropriately, to 
Dale, the great captain's first lieutenant. 

Dale never lost his interest in sailors and all 
who live by the sea. He was a deeply religious 
man, and organized a mariners' church, which he 
urged all sailors to attend. Every Sunday after- 

40 



RICHARD DALE 

noon for thirty years he went to this humble little 
chapel, and, besides joining in the service, would 
go about among the sailors who were present, 
gently inquiring into their wants, and never fail- 
ing to do a kindness for them when possible. It 
is said that no man was ever heard to speak a 
word against him. He died peacefully, after a 
short illness, in 1826. The United States named 
for him a fine sloop of war, which, like Dale him- 
self, saw much service and had many vicissitudes. 
She is still in existence, and when, a few years 
ago, her timbers were examined, they were found 
as sound and whole, in spite of all her years of 
service, as they ought to be in a ship named 
for a man like Richard Dale. In her main 
gangway a memorial plate is placed, recalling 
Commodore Dale's services in the fight between 
the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, and 
quoting the never-to-be-forgotten words of Paul 
Jones, when he was asked, in his almost help- 
less ship, if he had struck, — "I have not yet 
begun to fight." 



41 



THOMAS TRUXTUN 

In the old days the American sailors were great 
singers, and naval songs, rude in construction 
but vivid witli patriotic fire, were immensely pop- 
ular. When they were trolled forth on the fok'sle, 
nearly every sailor could join in, and the effect 
was as inspiring as Dibdin's songs were to the 
British navy about the same time. Among the 
first and favorite of these songs was " Truxtun's 
Victory," beginning, — 

" Come, all ye Yankee sailors, with swords and pikes ad- 
vance ; 
'T is time to try your courage and humble haughty 
France." 

There was a good deal of poetic license regard- 
ing facts as well as forms, and the poet, in describ- 
ing Truxtun's victory on L'Insurgente, a crack 
French frigate, represents 

" The blood did from their scuppers run ; 
Their captain cried, ' I am undone ! ' " 

Instead of crying that he was undone, the French 
captain made a gallant defence ; and if his metal 

42 



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Medal awarded to Thomas Thuxtun 



THOMAS TRUXTUN 

had been heavier, it might have been " Barreault's 
Victory," instead of " Truxtun's Victory." 

Thomas Triixtun was born in New York in 
1755, but, losing his father early, was taken to 
Jamaica by a relative and brought up. He had 
but little chance of a school education, and went 
to sea early. He was but twenty years old when 
the Revolution broke out, and was then in com- 
mand of a merchant vessel. Unfortunately it 
cannot be recounted that Truxtun entered the 
American navy then. Instead he chose serving 
in a privateer. But it must be remembered that 
the whole naval force of the colonies was very 
feeble, and so slight was the expectation that it 
could prevail against the mighty fleets of Eng- 
land that only a few small ships were ofhcered, 
and there was no more room for would-be officers. 
Truxtun, however, did excellent service in priva- 
teers, — usually not very honorable ships in them- 
selves, as they prey only on the commerce of an 
enemy ; yet in the Revolution many privateers 
boldly engaged with armed ships. Naturally the 
naval men held privateers in contempt, and a let- 
ter of the great Paul Jones is extant which shows 
that he and young Captain Truxtun had a sharp 
quarrel over the rights of privateers. Congress 
had passed an act forbidding a privateer to hoist 
a pennant in the presence of a naval ship, with- 
out first getting the consent of the naval ship's 
commander. Truxtun, an impetuous young man 

43 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

of twenty-five, in command of the ship Inde- 
pendence from Philadelphia, arrived at L'Orient 
in France in 1780. At the same time the Ariel, 
under command of Paul Jones, was lying in the 
port. What folloAved Paul Jones himself describes 
in a letter addressed to " Mr. Thomas Truxtun, 
master of the ship Independence." 

^' You passed, some time ago, with the merchant 
ship called the Independence belonging to Philadel- 
phia, close under the stern of the continental ship 
Ariel, under my command in the Road of Groix; 
and you then showed no mark of respect to the Con- 
tinental flag of commission, but went on with a long 
Pendant flying, and without lowering any sail or 
colour, or crew showing any mark of politeness. In 
the port of L'Orient you were not satisfied with a 
long Pendant, but you hoisted a kind of Broad one ; 
and until yesterday you have worn it at your moor- 
ings in presence of the Continental ship Ariel. 
This was flying in the Face of a positive resolution 
of Congress. When your vessel was yesterday 
under sail, she was steered in my presence very 
near the Ariel in passing down to Port Louis. I 
then sent a Boat with an oflicer to request yourself 
or your representative to take down the Pendant. 
The officer returned and reported to me that my 
boat's crew had been menaced by your people, and 
that your mate said he had Orders to treat me with 
Contempt, and disobey any order or request to haul 
down the Pendant. When I found this, I sent 
Lieut. Dale back with two Boats armed, and with 

44 



THOMAS TRUXTUN 

another polite message, and sucli orders as I will 

answer for having given. The Pendant was then 

hauled Down as he approached. I cannot answer 

your letter of this date more particularly, as there 

are in it several words that I do not understand and 

cannot find in the dictionary. I shall receive no 

more letters from you on the subject. It is not me 

you have offended. You have offended the United 

States of America. I am, sir, your most humble 

servant, 

^^ J. Paul Jones." 

By this letter it will be seen that Captain 
Truxtun, like Richard Dale, was better at fight- 
ing than writing ; and it will also be noted that 
when Paul Jones's blood vv^as up, he sent Dale to 
call Captain Truxtun to account, and as soon as 
Dale took the matter in hand, '' the Pendant was 
then hauled down." 

Truxtun had an adventurous time of it during 
the Revolution, and made a name for himself as a 
man of enterprise and a fine seaman. His after 
achievements make it a source of keen regret 
that such a man should have been engaged in 
such a calling as privateering, when, like Paul 
Jones and Richard Dale, he might have assisted 
his country much better on a regular ship of 
war. 

He remained in the merchant service after the 
war was over ; but when the United States began 
to create a navy in 1784, Truxtun was given a 

45 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

captain's commission. Trouble had been brewing 
with France for some time, and in 1797 the gov- 
ernment determined to build several frigates in 
case of war, and this year saw the launching of 
the two noble ships, the Constitution and the 
Constellation, which were both destined to win 
immortal fame. Truxtun was appointed to com- 
mand the Constellation, and also to superintend 
the building. She was laid down at Baltimore in 
the summer of 1797, and few ships ever took the 
water more quickly than the glorious Constella- 
tion. She had a very remarkable launch on the 
7th of September, 1797. Nearly all her guns and 
stores w^ere on board, and seven days after she 
kissed the water she was ready to sail. She 
had been coppered in ten hours. The Constella- 
tion was a beautiful frigate, very fast and weath- 
erly, and carrying thirty-eight guns. She was 
finely officered and manned, and Captain Truxtun 
sailed on his first cruise with every advantage in 
his favor, — a ship that could both fight and run, 
and a company worthy of the ship. He cruised 
for some time without meeting with any extraor- 
dinary adventures ; but the next year four other 
smaller vessels were put under his command, and 
the squadron went to the West Indies. This was 
directly in harm's way, as the West India islands 
were full of French ships of war, and France and 
the United States were on the eve of a quasi-war, 
so that Captain Truxtun sailed with the hope of 

46 



THOMAS TRUXTUN 

getting a whack at a Frenchman, and this came 
about in February, 1799. As the old song has it, 

" 'T was in the month of February, off Montserrat we lay, 
When there we spied the Insurgente — " 

This was considered to be the fastest frigate in 
the world, and was commanded by a crack French 
captain, Barreault. She carried forty twelve- 
pounders in her batteries, and the Constellation 
carried thirty-eight twenty-four pounders, making 
the Constellation much the stronger ship; yet 
Captain Truxtun showed, in the fight which fol- 
lowed, that he could have whipped a heavier ship 
than L'Insurgente, which made a very smart fight 
too. Captain Barreault knew that the Constella- 
tion was the heavier, but he did not on that account 
refuse the battle, but showed a manly willingness 
to fight. 

The Constellation sighted L'Insurgente in the 
forenoon of February 9, 1799, and immediately 
made for her. As soon as she got near enough, 
the French ship hoisted American colors, in or- 
der to draw her on and give the French ship 
time to find out something about the stranger. 
Captain Truxtun then showed the private signal, 
which Captain Barreault was unable to answer. 
L'Insurgente then threw off every disguise, and, 
setting the French ensign, ran off and fired a gun 
to windward, which meant, in sailor language, 
that he was ready for a yardarm to yardarm 

47 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

fight. Captain Truxtun set an American ensign 
at every masthead and came on, the Frenchman 
waiting on an easy bowline, for his enemy. The 
Americans, both officers and men, showed the 
most cheerful ardor to engage, and the two 
ships went at it with equal spirit. When within 
hailing distance the Frenchman hailed; but dis- 
regarding this, Captain Truxtun came on until 
he was abeam of his adversary. Then he let fly 
his broadside, and the Frenchman answered him 
promptly. Captain Truxtun discovered that he 
had no fool to play with in Captain Barreault, 
and for an hour the Frenchman gave the Con- 
stellation all she could do. But by that time 
the superior metal of the Constellation began to 
tell. The Frenchman aimed at the spars and 
rigging, and the foretopmast of the Constel- 
lation was badly wounded. The officer in the 
foretop was Midshipman David Porter, afterward 
the celebrated captain, and, seeing that the fore- 
topmast was likely to fall, with all the men in 
the hamper, he hailed the deck to report the 
damage. So furious was the cannonade, though, 
that his voice could not be heard. He therefore 
gave orders on his own account to cut away the 
stoppers and lower the topsail yard, and by his 
promptness the spar as well as the men in the top 
were saved. The Americans aimed at the hull, 
and in an hour L'Insurgente was riddled like a 
sieve. The Constellation then shot ahead, and, 

48 



THOMAS TRUXTUN 

luffing across the Frenchman's bows, was ready 
with every gun to rake him, when Captain Bar- 
reault, seeing his hopeless condition, struck his 

colors. 

The captured frigate was sent into St. Kitts 
with only two midshipmen, Porter and Rodgcrs, 
and eleven men, to keep one hundred and seventy 
three Frenchmen below the hatches. This they 
did, besides managing the ship in a hard gale, 
and took her in triumph to St. Kitts within four 

days. 

The next year Captain Truxtun had a chance 
to show what he could do against a stronger ship 
than his own, and on the 1st of February, 1800, 
being off Guadeloupe, he sighted La Vengeance, 
one of the great French frigates, mounting fifty- 
two guns. The Constellation immediately set 
her ensign and gave chase, but La Vengeance, 
having on board a large number of officers of 
rank and soldiers which she was carrying to 
France, would rather not have fought, and so 
took to her heels. The chase continued from the 
morning of the 1st of February until late in the 
afternoon of the 2d, and it was eight o'clock 
at night before they finally came to close quarters. 
When La Vengeance found the Constellation was 
bent on a fight, she entered into it with all the 
bravery of the French character. The officers 
and soldiers she was carrying as passengers went 
to quarters with the regular crew, and she came 

4 49 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

on in grand style, giving her first broadside as 
soon as the Constellation was within range. 
Captain Truxtun, without firing a gun, drew 
within pistol shot of his enemy, both crews cheer- 
ing as the two gallant enemies neared each other. 
When within pistol shot, the Constellation barked 
out every gun in broadside, and the fight be- 
gan in good earnest. Both ships were running 
free, and during the whole fight, which lasted 
five hours, the cannonade continued. The crowded 
condition of the Frenchman's decks made the 
slaughter dreadful, but she did not take her pun- 
ishment without giving it back with spirit. The 
moon had risen in tropic splendor, and a good 
breeze was blowing, so that both ships could 
manoeuvre, and the bright light enabled them to 
see what they were doing. Toward midnight, 
though, it was plain that the French ship was 
getting the worst of it. However, she showed no 
signs of surrender, and her guns that could still 
be worked pounded the mainmast of the Con- 
stellation until it was soon seen that it must fall. 
At this point occurred what is probably the 
noblest act of young courage in all naval history. 
The officer of the maintop was a little midship- 
man, James Jarvis, who was only thirteen years 
old. When it was seen tliat nothing could save 
the mainmast, the topmen leaped and clam- 
bered down, and an old sailor begged the little 
midshipman to save himself. To this young 

50 



THOMAS TRUXTUN 

Jarvis answered calmly, " As an officer I cannot 
leave my station, and if the mast goes, I must go 
with it." In a few moments the great mast fell 
with a fearful crash, and this dauntless boy came 
down with it. He w^as the only officer on the 
Constellation killed. 

This accident rendered the Constellation help- 
less for a time, and La Vengeance, having still 
spars enough left to get away, made off, with- 
out firing another gun, and was soon lost in the 
darkness that followed the setting of the moon. 
Her loss of men was frightful, while that of the 
Constellation was comparatively small. 

When Captain Truxtun reached home after 
this brilliant engagement, he was received with 
acclamations. Congress gave him a gold medal 
and its thanks, and passed a solemn resolution in 
honor of young Jarvis, " who gloriously preferred 
certain death to the abandonment of his post." 
This is, perhaps, an unprecedented honor for a 
boy of thirteen, but it cannot be denied that the 
little midshipman, who deliberately gave his life 
rather than desert his post, well earned it. 

The London merchants of Lloyd's coffee-house 
sent Captain Truxtun a splendid service of plate 
worth six hundred guineas, and some years after- 
ward the United States named a smart sloop of 
w^ar after him, the Truxtun. Captain Truxtun 
served but a short while in the navy after this. 
In 1802 he was ordered, as Commodore, to com- 

51 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

mand a squadron, and, finding he was to have 
no captain on his flag-ship, declined the honor. 
His letter was misunderstood by the authorities 
of the Navy Department to mean a resignation 
from the navy, and was, as such, accepted. 
Commodore Truxtun, too proud to withdraw it, 
chose rather to withdraw from the navy, — a 
course which must ever be regretted. He chose 
Philadelphia as his home, and became a promi- 
nent and important citizen. He was for some 
time Sheriff of the city. In 1823 his death 
occurred, and he left behind him an honorable 
name as a man, and a brilliant reputation as a 
seaman. 



52 




William Bainbridge 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

Commodore Bainbhidge was born at Princeton, 
New Jersey, in 1774. His family were of good 
standing, and willing as well as able to give the 
boy a liberal education; but an inborn love of 
adventure possessed him, and he begged to be 
allowed to go to sea. At that time, 1789-90, 
the navy of the Revolution had ceased to exist, 
while the navy of a later date was not created, 
and the only way to gratify the boy was to send 
him to sea in a merchant vessel. He first shipped 
in his sixteenth year, and his good habits and 
natural genius for the sea gave him the place of 
first officer of a ship when he was eighteen. 
During a voyage to Holland a mutiny occurred 
on board his vessel, which was quelled chiefly by 
the vigor and determination of young Bainbridge. 
The owners rewarded his services by giving him 
the command of the ship when he was barely 
nineteen. At this time he was a singularly hand- 
some young man. He was six feet high, his figure 
elegant, and his countenance as frank and open 
as it was comely. His manners were cordial, and 
his disposition impetuous ; but although he some- 
times fell into hasty and passionate language, no 

53 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

man was more ready to make amends. Like Paul 
Jones, he stammered slightly, but, also like him, 
he spoke smoothly enough when there was oc- 
casion for it, and no one ever heard him halt in 
his speech when an order aboard ship was to be 
given. 

Bainbridge remained in command of merchant 
ships until the reorganization of the navy in 1798. 
During those years a singular and unsatisfactory 
state of affairs existed for American ships on the 
ocean. Without a single ship of war to protect 
them, they were liable to be overhauled by British 
warships, which claimed the right to search, by 
French warships, which practically fought and 
captured them, while a large trade with the North 
of Europe and the East was harassed by the cor- 
sairs of the Barbary coast. With regard to these 
last, a truly disgraceful condition prevailed. The 
Dey of Algiers actually demanded and received 
tribute from the United States government for 
not molesting its trading-vessels ! It is true that 
other nations of Europe submitted to the same 
sort of blackmail ; but their reasons, although not 
sufficient, were better than those of the Americans. 
New in the art of forming a great republic, and 
unduly fearful of the dangers of a fixed naval 
force as well as of a standing army, the govern- 
ment of the United States tried to do without 
a navy ; but it paid for its mistake many times 
over, both in national honor and in money. The 

54 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

European nations also paid money to the Barbary 
pirates, and allowed their ships to be used in 
various ways, at the request of these haughty 
despots ; but it was with a desire to secure their 
political alliances in the universal wars that 
scourged Europe at that day, and not from in- 
ability to protect their own carrying ships. 

It may be imagined how galling this was to 
American captains, and that they resisted when- 
ever there was a chance of success. Young 
Bainbridge was the last man to submit to co- 
ercion when he could help himself, and on two 
occasions, while in command of merchant vessels, 
showed the spirit that was in him. Once, when 
commanding the Hope, a little vessel carrying 
only eleven men before the mast and four nine- 
pounders, he fell in with a British privateer, 
carrying thirty men and eight guns. A sharp 
action ensued; for privateers are not wont to 
heed any vessel's rights when the privateer is the 
stronger party, and Paul Jones's characterization 
of them as " licensed robbers " is not far wrong. 
The Hope, however, made a good defence, and 
forced the privateer to call for quarter. Under 
the existing law, Bainbridge could not claim her 
as lawful prize, but was forced to let her go, 
shouting out to her commander as they parted, 
" Tell your employers if they have occasion for 
the Hope, they must send some other man than 
you to get her ! " 

55 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Another time, the Indefatigable, frigate, under 
Sir Edward Pellew, afterward Lord Exmouth and 
the conqueror of Algiers, sent a squad of seamen 
on board the Hope, and took out of her a man 
alleged to be a British subject. Bainbridge could 
not resist, but he sent word to Sir Edward that 
the first British vessel of a force the Hope could 
cope with, a man should be taken out of her, as 
sure as he was alive and commanded the Hope. 
This he did within a week, and carried the man 
back to the United States with him. 

Things reached such a pass in 1798 that the 
necessity for a navy became pressing, and steps 
were promptly taken to organize and equip a 
naval force. Bainbridge, then twenty-four years 
old, was among the first to apply for a commis- 
sion, and he was given that of lieutenant com- 
mandant. He soon got the command of a little 
cruiser of fourteen guns, captured from the 
French, and renamed the Eetaliation. The ship 
was ordered to the West Indies, to cruise in 
company with the Montezuma, sloop of war, and 
the Norfolk, brig. On a November day in 1798, 
while cruising off Gaudeloupe, Bainbridge found 
himself too near two French frigates, Le Vo- 
lontier, forty-four guns, and L'Insurgente, forty 
guns.i L'Insurgente was a tremendously fast 
frigate, and soon overhauled Bainbridge and com- 

1 See the biography of Commodore Truxtun, who captured 
LTnsurgente. 

56 



WILLIAM BATNBRIDGE 

pelled him to strike his colors. He was at once 
taken on board Le Yolontier, while L'Insurgente 
proceeded in chase of the Montezuma and the 
Norfolk. Captain St. Laurent, of Le Volontier, 
seeing L'Insurgente about to engage two adver- 
saries, and knowing her captain, Barreault, to be 
a man brave to rashness, was disturbed at the 
prospect. He asked Bainbridge, who was on the 
quarterdeck, what the force of the American 
ships was. Bainbridge promptly replied that the 
Montezuma carried twenty-eight long guns, and 
the Norfolk twenty. This was about double their 
real force. Captain St. Laurent at once signalled 
L'Insurgente to return. Her captain, Barreault, 
was deeply chagrined, and when he went on board 
Le Yolontier, told Captain St. Laurent that the 
American vessels were of trifling force, and he 
could easily have taken them both. Then Bain- 
bridge's clever ruse was discovered ; but the 
French officers, realizing that he had done his 
duty in trying to save his country's ships, showed 
no ill-will toward him. 

The Retaliation was the first and only ship 
of war captured by the French during the years 
that war existed between the United States and 
France, althougli it never was declared. But 
Bainbridge's reputation did not suffer by this, 
as his whole conduct was that of a man of spirit 
and capacity. He rose to the rank of captain 
just as he reached his twenty-sixth birthday ; and 

57 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

in 1800 he was appointed to the command of 
the George Washington, of twenty-eight guns. 
His first duty was to carry tribute to the Dey of 
Algiers. No more hateful service could have been 
devised for him, and great blame rests upon the 
men in the government who subjected the United 
States to such humiliation. 

In September, 1800, Bainbridge reached Al- 
giers, and anchored within the mole. Scarcely 
had he landed the tribute, consisting of about 
half a million in money, — enough to have built 
a ship that could have knocked the Dey's forts 
about his ears, — when he was asked to carry the 
Dey's ambassador to Constantinople, along with 
a present to the Sultan, of slaves, wild beasts, 
and a large sum of money. Bainbridge was 
furious at the demand; but the Dey insolently 
told him that he must go, or the ship, which was 
completely in the Dey's power, would be taken, 
her officers and crew sold into slavery, and war 
made on American trade. Bainbridge was re- 
minded that British, French, and Spanish ships 
had performed the same duty ; but no doubt Bain- 
bridge realized that in all those cases it was done 
from political motives, while in his case it was 
done simply because he could not help himself. 
With a very bad grace, he agreed, and the pres- 
ents and passengers v/ere put in the ship and he 
sailed for Constantinople in October. Tt was a 
cruise the officers of the George Washington 

58 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

never liked to speak of; but there is no doubt 
til at, although it was a time of the utmost vexa- 
tion and mortification, innumerable amusing inci- 
dents occurred. The Moliammedans had great 
difficulty in keeping their faces toward Mecca 
during the frequent evolutions of the ship, and 
a man had to be stationed at the compass to let 
them know when it was time for them to '^ go 
about." This was a standing cause of laughter 
and gibes from the sailors, which naturally gave 
great offence to the Mohammedans ; and these 
disagreements, together with a ship full of wild 
beasts, made it a cruise never to be forgotten. 

Bainbridge was very doubtful whether his vessel 
would be allowed to pass the Dardanelles, as the 
American flag had never been seen in those seas 
before ; so he concluded to get through by his 
wits. He approached with a strong wind, and 
clewed up his light sails as if about to anchor, 
saluting meanwhile. The salute was returned, 
and under cover of the smoke sail was quickly 
made and the ship slipped past, out of range of 
shot from the castles. When she reached Con- 
stantinople, a boat was sent ashore to report her 
arrival. The Turkish officials sent back word 
that they knew no such nation as the United 
States. They were soon convinced that there 
was such a nation, and were well received. The 
Sultan's brother-in-law, Capudan Pasha, became 
much attached to Bainbridge, and mentioned that 

59 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

the Dey of Algiers was not in favour with the 
Sublime Porte. Bainbridge, knowing he would re- 
turn to Algiers, got a letter from Capudan Pasha, 
in which the Dey was commanded to treat the 
American commander with the highest respect. 
Bainbridge returned to Algiers in January, and 
was immediately met with another demand, — 
that he take the Algerine ambassador back to 
Constantinople. This he firmly refused, at an 
interview in which the Dey stormed, raged, and 
threatened. In the midst of this, Bainbridge 
calmly produced Capudan Pasha's letter. The 
Dey paused, grew pale, and trembled, and then 
burst into profuse offers of assistance, which 
Bainbridge coolly declined, and left the palace. 

The next day, in obedience to orders from 
Constantinople, the Dey declared war against 
France, and notified all of the French in Algiers 
— fifty-six men, women, and children — that unless 
they left within forty-eight hours, they would be 
sold into slavery. France was then at war with 
the United States, but this did not prevent Bain- 
bridge from offering these unfortunates an asylum 
on the George Washington at great inconvenience 
to himself, and carrying them all to Spain. For 
this humane act he received the personal thanks 
of Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul. 

Bainbridge returned to the United States with 
the George Washington, and soon after got the 
Essex, a thirty-two-gun frigate attached to the 

60 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

squadron which was sent to the Mediterranean 
in 1801, under the command of Commodore 
Richard Dale. Among the lieutenants of the 
Essex was Stephen Decatur, afterward the cele- 
brated Commodore. 

The ship arrived at Barcelona in August, and 
took a berth in the harbor, close to the Spanish 
guardship. The neatness of the Essex and the 
seamanlike appearance and conduct of her officers 
and men were so much remarked upon that it 
gave great offence to the officers of the guardship. 
The stay of the American frigate at Barcelona 
was a long scene of turmoil, owing to collisions 
between her junior officers and the Spanish mid- 
shipmen. In one of these Decatur figured promi- 
nently. Bainbridge acted with spirit and also 
with judgment, but was glad to get away from 
such uncomfortable quarters. 

By that time Congress was beginning to wake 
up to the necessity for a more vigorous policy with 
regard to the Barbary powers, and the squadron 
was directed to protect American shipping by 
force. The corsairs interpreted this to mean 
war, and their aggressions reached such a pitch, 
after the return of Dale's squadron in 1802, that 
in 1803 Commodore Preble was sent out with the 
Constitution, the Philadelphia, and five smaller 
vessels, to reduce these piratical powers. Bain- 
bridge was promoted from the command of the 
Essex to the Philadelphia, a fine thirty-eight-gun 

61 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

frigate, carrying a few more than three hundred 
men. 

Her first lieutenant was David Porter, who, 
as a young midshipman, had distinguished him- 
self in the Constellation under Captain Truxtun, 
and who was destined to a highly honorable and 
active career during the whole time of his service 
in the navy. 

The Philadelphia arrived at Gibraltar in Au- 
gust, 1803, and the next day began to cruise up 
and down the straits in search of corsairs. In a 
day or two she fell in with a Moorish vessel, 
the Meshboha, in company with an American 
brig which had been captured, and her company 
taken aboard the Meshboha. The Philadelphia 
stood by, and forced the Moorish captain, Luba- 
rez, to send all his prisoners to the Philadelphia, 
and to come aboard himself. Bainbridge invited 
him into the cabin, and feeling sure that he had 
orders to capture American ships, directed him to 
produce these orders. Lubarez stoutly denied 
he had any such orders. 

"Yery well," coolly responded Bainbridge, 
taking out his watch. " I am now going on 
deck for half an hour. When I return, if you 
cannot show your orders, I will immediately hang 
you at the yardarm for a pirate." 

At the end of half an hour Bainbridge re- 
turned. Lubarez then sullenly admitted he had 
orders, but they were inside his waistcoat. 

62 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

" Take off your waistcoat," said Bainbridge. 

Lubarez began slowly to remove his waistcoat ; 
but another appeared under it. He finally peeled 
off five waistcoats, and underneath the last one 
were the orders. Bainbridge immediately took 
possession of the Meshboha and her prize, and 
carried them both into Gibraltar. 

In a few days Commodore Preble reached Gib- 
raltar, and Bainbridge was sent to Tripoli, with 
orders to intercept and capture every Tripolitan 
vessel possible. He arrived before Tripoli, in the 
autumn of 1803, and immediately began a vigor- 
ous blockade. On the 31st of October he gave 
chase to a xebec trying to get into the harbor. 
He was rapidly overhauling her, when, at the 
mouth of the harbor, the water suddenly shoaled, 
and the Philadelphia ran upon a tremendous reef, 
known to the Tripolitans, but not down on any 
chart. 

At once every effort was made to get the ship 
off, but she held fast, and soon heeled over so far 
to starboard that her guns on that side became 
useless. The Tripolitans at once saw her desper- 
ate plight, and gunboats came out in swarms to 
attack her. The Americans fought the gun- 
boats off as best they could, meanwhile working 
with amazing energy to save the ship. All the 
water in her was pumped out, the anchors were 
cut from the bows, most of her guns thrown over- 
board, and at last the foremast w^as cut away. 

63 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Still the ship stuck fast. Bainbridge, who had 
shown great coolness and determination in the 
dreadful circumstances in which he found himself, 
presently saw that he must give up the ship. He 
called a council of his officers, and they agreed 
that all had been done that men could do. The 
carpenters were ordered to scuttle the ship ; and 
just as the autumn night was closing in, the 
Philadelphia's colors were hauled down, and 
the Tripolitans swarmed over the decks, in the 
ports, and everywhere a foot could be set. Then 
looting began ; the officers being robbed of every- 
thing, even their swords and epaulets. Bain- 
bridge gave up his watch and money in dignified 
silence ; but when his wife's picture was about to 
be torn from around his neck, he swore no man 
should have it, and fought the Tripolitan off who 
would have taken it. 

The officers and men were then carried into 
the town, where the officers were received by the 
Bashaw in great state, surrounded by his minis- 
ters. It is said that Bainbridge never looked 
handsomer or more imposing than wiien he ap- 
peared at the head of his officers before the 
barbaric prince. The Bashaw treated them with 
Eastern courtesy, gave them a handsome supper, 
for they were half dead with hunger and fatigue, 
and then sent them to a temporary prison. They 
were in charge of Sidi Mohammed D'Ghies, one 
of the great officers of state, who proved to be a 

64 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

man of good heart, and whose ideas of military 
honor were Western rather than Eastern. 

Then began a captivity which lasted for nine- 
teen months. The men were reduced to a posi- 
tion of slavery, and made to work for their 
Tripolitan masters. The officers were closely 
confined, and after several attempts at escape 
had been made by the younger ones, they were 
removed to the dungeons of the Bashaw's castle. 

The situation of Bainbridge was sad in the 
extreme. He felt himself to be foredoomed to 
misfortune. He had lost his first ship, the Re- 
taliation, in the French war. His cruise in the 
George Washington had been painful and hu- 
miliating in many respects; and now he had 
lost one of the two frigates that the country 
depended upon to punish the corsairs. A very 
affecting letter of his to his wife exists, in which 
he seems plunged into despair ; and in it he says 
he sometimes thinks " it would have been a mer- 
ciful dispensation of Providence if my head had 
been shot off while our vessel lay rolling upon 
the rocks." But from this sharp affliction his 
gallant spirit rallied after a time. His officers 
and men felt undiminished confidence in and 
affection for him, and did all in their power 
to comfort him. 

The very day after their capture they sent him 
a letter saying, " We, late officers of the United 
States frigate Philadelphia, wishing to express 

5 65 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

our full approbation of your conduct concerning 
the unfortunate event of yesterday, do conceive 
that the charts and soundings justified as near an 
approach to the shore as we made, and that after 
she struck every expedient was used to get her 
off and to defend her which courage and abilities 
could dictate. 

" We wish to add that in this instance as in 
every other, since we have had the honor of being 
under your command, the officers and seamen 
have always appreciated your distinguished con- 
duct. Believe us, sir, that our misfortunes and 
sorrows are entirely absorbed in our sympathy 
for you. We are, sir, with sentiments of the 
highest and most sincere respect, your friends 
and fellow sufferers." 

Here follow the signatures of every officer 
under Bainbridge. 

He soon received letters from Commodore 
Preble ; and the brotherly kindness expressed 
in them reflects the greatest honor upon a supe- 
rior officer who could feel so generously in an 
affair which crippled and embarrassed him so 
cruelly as the loss of the Philadelphia. Preble 
wrote : " May God bless and preserve you ! Rec- 
ollect that destiny, not want of courage, has de- 
prived you of liberty, hut not of honor. ^^ And he 
adds, " The first consul of France, the celebrated 
Bonaparte, has interested himself deeply in your 
situation." 

66 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

To the chagrin of the Americans, they found 
that the Philadelphia had not been thoroughly 
scuttled, and she was hauled off the rocks by the 
Tripolitans, the holes in her bottom stopped, her 
foremast refitted, her guns and anchors fished up, 
and she was towed within the harbor. From the 
one window of their underground prison, the un- 
fortunate officers of the Philadelphia could see the 
ship riding at anchor, and disgraced by the pirate 
flag of Tripoli. 

The captives were allowed to communicate at 
intervals with Commodore Preble, who gave them 
assurance that they were not forgotten, and that 
the Bashaw would have to surrender them and 
pay dearly for having imprisoned them. Besides 
these official communications, means were found 
by which letters written in lemon juice were 
exchanged, and in one of these Bainbridge sug- 
gested the possibility of destroying the Philadel- 
phia at her moorings, — which was afterward 
carried out with splendid dash by Decatur. 

In spite of those alleviations, there were long 
months of weariness and dreariness in a pecu- 
liarly trying captivity. The time was not wholly 
wasted. The midshipmen, whose untamed spirits 
frequently got them into difficulties, were set to 
work by the older officers, and all, men as well as 
officers, bore their imprisonment with fortitude. 
The seamen were made to labor on the fortifica- 
tions ; and as they were often unruly, the slave- 
67 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

driyers had no hesitation in ordering them to be 
bastinadoed on every occasion. The man who ad- 
ministered tlie punishment was not so hard-hearted 
as his masters, and although he regularly laid on 
the required number of blows upon the soles of 
the sailors' feet, he winked at the fact that they 
had wrapped folds of matting around their feet, 
and the blows hurt not at all. The sailors were 
clever enough to shriek and scream during this 
mock bastinadoing, and the slave-drivers were 
completely deceived by Jack's ruse. 

At last, on the night of the 15th of February, 
1804, the captives were awakened by the firing of 
heavy guns. By the light of a brilliant moon and 
the blazing hull and spars of the Philadelphia out 
in the harbor, they saw the destruction of the ship 
by Decatur^ and his gallant band. While they 
watched her burn to the water's edge, her shotted 
guns burst with heat and flame, her magazine 
blew up, and when the sun rose next morning, 
not a vestige remained of the lovely frigate. She 
had been destroyed by the Americans under De- 
catur, without the loss of a single man. 

This gave heart to the prisoners, and they felt 
their deliverance was at hand ; but it was not 
until the spring had passed and the summer 
dragged along into August that one day they 
were roused by a heavy cannonade. They were 
then confined underground in the Bashaw's 

1 See the biography of Decntur. 
^ 68 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

castle, and there was only one window by which 
they could see the offing. They eagerly clam- 
bered up, and the thrill of joy they felt may be 
imagined when they saw a smart flotilla of small 
vessels, led with the greatest dash and impetuosity 
by Decatur and Somers, burning, sinking, or driv- 
ing back the Tripolitan gunboats. And farther 
out in the offing, they saw the glorious Constitu- 
tion coming into action in grand style, choosing 
her range with majestic deliberation, and then 
her batteries roaring out destruction to her ene- 
mies, while the Tripolitan shot fell short, or 
dropped harmlessly against her stout sides. 

For six weeks the attack was kept up furiously, 
and in that time five tremendous assaults were 
made by Commodore Preble's squadron. In one 
of these destructive cannonades a round shot 
from the Constitution tore in at the one win- 
dow from which a part of the harbor could be 
seen, and, narrowly missing Bainbridge, knocked 
him down and almost covered him with the mass 
of stone and mortar it dislodged. But Bain- 
bridge was not the man to mind a trifle like this, 
and every time the Constitution came within 
range, she was welcome to the tired eyes, and the 
thunder of her well-served batteries was music 
to the ears of the imprisoned Americans. They 
hoped from day to day for release, and although 
the season for active operations closed before the 
Bashaw had actually been reduced to submission, 

69 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

yet it was plain that the town could not with- 
stand another such cannonade. 

Wlien the Constitution was forced to depart, 
she left behind her a menacing promise to the 
Bashaw that she would come back the next sea- 
son, and finish the work ; and the last of May, 
1805, saw her again oif the town. This time 
the Bashaw was anxious to make peace. Sidi 
Mohammed D'Ghies urged him to send Bain- 
bridge aboard the Constitution on his parole, to 
see what the Americans demanded. The Bashaw 
asked if Sidi really thought that Bainbridge 
would return if once his foot touched the Con- 
stitution's deck. 

" Certainly," replied Sidi ; " the American 
captain will keep his word, and I will leave my 
eldest son as a hostage that he will return." 

The Bashaw, only half believing, allowed Bain- 
bridge to go, and on the 1st of June, 1805, nine- 
teen months exactly after his capture, Bainbridge 
again trod the deck of an American man-of-war. 
Commodore Rodgers, commanding the Consti- 
tution, and all the officers of the squadron re- 
ceived him affectionately. They had brought out 
a treaty of peace for the Bashaw to sign, and 
the first stipulation was that every American 
prisoner should be given up immediately and 
without conditions. This, Bainbridge said, he 
did not believe the Bashaw would ever agree to, 
as it was a fixed principle with the Barbary 

70 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

powers never to give up a prisoner without ran- 
som. Bainbridge returned to the shore at night- 
fall, and, with Sidi, went to the castle, where the 
Bashaw expressed great surprise at seeing him 
again. The Bashaw, however, was far less in- 
clined to keep up the fight than Bainbridge ima- 
gined. After a day or two of hesitation, a council 
of war w^as held at which Bainbridge was invited 
to be present, — an honor never before bestowed 
upon a prisoner of the Barbary States. When 
Bainbridge entered the council chamber at the 
castle, he found the Bashaw surrounded by all of 
his great officers of state, with the treaty brought 
by Commodore Rodgers spread out before them. 
To sign it meant peace, and the immediate release 
of every American prisoner ; to refuse it meant 
that the Constitution and her consorts lying 
out within gunshot of the town, would be thun- 
dering at their forts and ships within an hour. 
The question of peace or war was debated with 
grave eloquence. The council was evenly divided. 
At last the decision had to be made. The Bashaw, 
after a solemn pause, took his signet ring from 
his bosom, and, affixing it to the treaty, said with 
dignity,— 

" It is peace." 

Bainbridge is said to have thought, after the 
event happened, that the Bashaw had no real 
intention of withstanding another bombardment, 
and his hesitation and final yielding to the 

71 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

advocates of peace was a preconcerted arrange- 
ment. 

As soon as the treaty was signed, the forts and 
castle saluted the American flag, and the squadron 
returned the salute. Next day the American 
prisoners were released. A Neapolitan who had 
been held in slavery for years by the Tripolitans 
had been very kind to the sailors and marines, 
and they asked Bainbridge if he would authorize 
the purser to advance them seven hundred dollars 
out of their pay to buy the Neapolitan's freedom. 
This was done, and the man was restored to his 
country by these grateful men. 

The squadron sailed for Syracuse, where a court 
of inquiry into the loss of the Pliiladelphia was 
held, and Bainbridge was honorably acquitted. 
On his return to the United States he was re- 
ceived with much kindness by his companions in 
arms, by the government, and the people, all of 
whom regarded him as a brave and capable offi- 
cer who had lost his ship by one of those fateful 
accidents against which neither courage nor ca- 
pacity can prevail. 

It seems singular that on the heels of the splen- 
did successes of the navy before Tripoli and with 
the rest of the Barbary powers, the government 
and the people showed very little understanding 
of the value of the naval service. As soon as 
hostilities were over with the corsairs, a reduc- 
tion of the navy took place, although at that very 

72 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

time aggressions of Great Britain upon American 
merchant ships were continuing at a rate which 
was bound to provoke war in the end. Bain- 
bridge, like many others, found himself without 
a ship, and on half-pay ; and he asked and ob- 
tained leave, during the intervals when he was 
without a naval command, to make voyages in 
the merchant service. He was absent on one 
of these voyages for profit in the autumn of 
1811, when at St. Petersburg he heard of the 
probability of a declaration of war with Great 
Britain. He started instantly on his return to 
the United States, and reached Washington in 
February, 1812. He found there one of Commo- 
dore Preble's captains, Charles Stewart,^ and to 
his rage and mortification was told that the gov- 
ernment thought it vain and foolhardy to give 
battle on the sea to the mightiest naval power 
on earth, which had then vanquished the navies 
of Europe and kept them skulking in their own 
harbors. Such over-prudence ill suited the ardent 
and determined natures of Bainbridge and Stewart. 
They heard that the government had concluded 
to lay up such ships as it had, and to prosecute 
the fight entirely on land. They went together 
to President Madison, and besought him to change 
this cowardly and unwise policy, and succeeded 
in persuading him to do it. For this one act the 
country is forever indebted to Bainbridge and 

^ See the biography of Stewart. 
73 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Stewart. While nothing could eventually stop 
tlie progress of the United States toward being 
a great and powerful nation, yet, had it not been 
for the victories gained at sea during the War of 
1812-15, the dignity and prestige of the United 
States would have suffered an eclipse for fifty 
years. The success of the Americans in the ship 
duels on the ocean during the war of 1812 did more 
to make the United States respected abroad than 
any event of our history after the Revolution. 
The great question of the right of search in neu- 
tral vessels was settled by the achievements of a 
few smart vessels with great and daring captains, 
belonging to a young and hitherto feeble power in 
America, — a right which had been vainly con- 
tested by all the powers of Europe. The British 
navy had been for more than a hundred years 
practically invincible, and there can be no doubt 
that many of its earlier losses in 1812-15 came 
from absolute rashness, fostered by a long and 
glorious career of conquest. What was of more 
value to the United States than the respect of 
continental Europe was the respect earned from 
the English themselves. The United States of 
1812 was chiefly populated by those only a few 
generations from an English ancestry, and the 
people of the two countries were alike in their 
willingness to make a square, stand-up fight, and 
then to shake hands afterward. From the hour 
that the first British frigate struck to an Ameri- 

74 



WILLIAM BAINBlilDGE 

can sliip, the British navy highly esteemed the 
American navy, and the British government real- 
ized that at last there was a sea power equal in 
skill, daring, and resource to Great Britain. The 
ships lost by the British were scarcely missed 
from their huge fleets ; but Great Britain, like 
America, promptly recognized the new and tre- 
mendous force which the taking of those few 
ships implied. It was one of the most fortunate 
hours that ever dawned for the United States 
when the advice of Bainbridge and Stewart was 
taken, and within six months they were amply 
justified. 

Bainbridge by his rank was entitled to a choice 
of the few frigates the country then owned, and 
he would undoubtedly have chosen the glorious 
" Old Ironsides " upon which to hoist his flag. 
But HulP had got her already, and, apprehend- 
ing that orders might come detaching him, he put 
to sea in a hurry, and before he returned, had 
captured the Guerriere frigate. Bainbridge got 
the Constellation, the fine frigate in which Com- 
modore Truxtun had fought two French frigates. 
He was not able, however, to get to sea in her; 
and when Hull returned from his victorious cruise, 
in August, 1812, he gave up the Constitution to 
Bainbridge, who hoisted a broad pennant on her. 
The Essex, thirty-two guns, commanded by Cap- 
tain Porter, who afterward made his celebrated 

1 See the biography of Commodore Hull. 
75 



TAVELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

• 
cruise in her to the Pacific, and the Hornet, of 

eighteen guns, under the gallant Lawrence,^ with 
the Constitution, were ordered to join Bainbridge. 
Porter was Bainbridge's old lieutenant in the 
Philadelphia, and had shared his captivity at 
Tripoli. Events, however, so fell out that the 
Essex did not join the other two ships, and Bain- 
bridge sailed in October, 1812, for the South 
Atlantic accompanied only by the Hornet. The 
Constitution was in need of repairs, and not sail- 
ing in her usual great form, but could still sail 
fairly well on a wind. She had some of the offi- 
cers and all of the crew in her that had got her 
out of the clutches of Admiral Broke's squadron 
in June, and had taken the Guerriere in August. 
Therefore it was with great confidence that Com- 
modore Bainbridge on the morning of the 29th of 
December, 1812, made for a British frigate which 
showed an equal inclination to close with him. 
This vessel, the Java, which carried forty-nine 
guns, was undoubtedly a lighter ship than the 
Constitution. Yet the British were in the habit 
of engaging such odds successfully with the war- 
ships of other nations, and Captain Lambert of 
the Java showed a stern determination to stand 
by his colors, and was as far from declining the 
fight when he saw his adversary's power as when 
she was still hull down in the distance. 

The Java was fitted out to carry Lieutenant- 

1 See the biograpliies of Porter aud Lawrence. 
76 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

General Hislop and a large staff to Bombay, 
besides a number of naval officers and seamen for 
ships on the East India stations. She had about 
four hundred and twenty-five men on board. 

About two o'clock in the day, after manoeuvring 
for an hour or two in order to get together, the 
first broadsides were exchanged. There was a 
light wind blowing, and Bainbridge, wishing to 
get the advantage of it as far as possible, did not 
strip his ship of much of her canvas, but went 
into action with most of his light sails set and his 
royal yards across. The Java, which was finely 
officered and extra manned, was very actively 
handled ; and so many evolutions were made, in 
order to get a good position for raking, that the 
battle ended many miles to leeward of where it 
began. The cannonade was brisk from the start, 
and soon after the first broadside Commodore 
Bainbridge was struck on the hip by a musket 
ball, and in less than five minutes, while he was 
standing near the wheel, a shot shivered it, and a 
small bolt was driven into his thigh. Bainbridge 
did not leave the deck a moment for this, but 
remained walking about as if he had not been 
wounded. The loss of the Constitution's wheel 
was very serious, especially with so expert an 
antagonist as Captain Lambert to deal with, and 
Bainbridge endeavored to close. This was only 
partially successful, but nevertheless so effective 
was the Constitution's fire that it was soon appar- 

77 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

ent that she had the Java at her mercy. The 
gallant frigate, however, did not strike her colors 
until every spar was shot out of her, her cap- 
tain mortally hurt, her first lieutenant painfully 
wounded, and she had lost forty-eight killed and 
one hundred and two wounded. Then only she 
hauled down the union jack which had been fly- 
ing at the stump of the mizzen-mast. The Con- 
stitution had lost nine men killed and twenty-five 
wounded, and came out of the action with all her 
royal yards across, and every spar in place. 

The Java had been so much cut up that it 
was impossible to refit her, and Bainbridge was 
forced to burn her, after taking out her wheel to 
replace the Constitution's. This was a remark- 
ably clumsy wheel, and in no way matched the 
handsome fittings of the ship ; but it was retained, 
from motives of sentiment, ever afterward. 

Captain Lambert lived several days after the 
fight, and was put ashore, with the rest of the 
officers of the Java, at San Salvador. Com- 
modore Bainbridge's wounds were dangerous, as 
he had remained on deck from the time he was 
shot, at half past two in the day, until eleven 
o'clock that night. When Captain Lambert was 
about to be taken ashore, Bainbridge had himself 
carried on deck by two of his officers, to where 
Captain Lambert lay in his cot. Bainbridge, who 
was then dangerously ill and in great pain, re- 
turned the dying officer his sword, and Captain 

78 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

Lambert, still conscious, feebly thanked him. 
The interview brought tears to the eyes of all 
who witnessed it, and the two captains parted, 
never to meet again in this world, with feelings 
of kindness such as brave enemies should enter- 
tain for each other. 

Bainbridge treated all of his prisoners with 
great generosity, and they showed a very grate- 
ful appreciation of it. On the 4th of January, 
on being informed by Lieutenant Chads, next 
in command, of Captain Lambert's death, Bain- 
bridge wrote a very beautiful letter, in which he 
said : " Commodore Bainbridge takes this occa- 
sion to observe, m justice to Lieutenant Chads, 
who fought the Java after Captain Lambert was 
wounded, that he had done everything which a 
brave and skilful officer could do, and further 
resistance would have been a wanton effusion of 
human blood." 

This was valuable testimony to Lieutenant 
Chads on his future court martial. Bainbridge 
had known what it was to lose his ship, and he 
could feel for an officer under a similar misfor- 
tune. So thoughtful was his kindness to his pris- 
oners, that General Hislop in gratitude gave him a 
splendid gold-hilted sword, and the two remained 
friends and correspondents during the rest of their 
lives. The conduct of Bainbridge and his officers 
was duly reported in England, and the Prince Re- 
gent, afterward George the Fourth, who could say 

79 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

graceful things, remarked that he would like to 
shake hands with Bainbridge, for his magna- 
nimity to the British prisoners. The loss of the 
Java, following upon that of the Guerriere and 
the Macedonian, produced a shock of pain and 
grief throughout Great Britain. The venerable 
Admiral Jarvis, the day after the news reached 
London, said he had passed a sleepless night, not 
from the destruction of a single British frigate, but 
because of the seamanlike manner in which it had 
been captured, which gave him as an Englishman 
much uneasiness and apprehension of the future 
naval greatness of the United States. Bainbridge 
returned to the United States within five months 
of leaving home, and was welcomed as victorious 
captains always are. He landed at Boston, where 
he was given a splendid public dinner ; resolutions 
of thanks from the city and State governments 
were passed in his honor, and he and the brave 
fellows under him became the heroes of the hour. 
Amid all this popular adoration, Bainbridge did 
not forget the claims of the seamen, and imme- 
diately began efforts to get them prize money. 
He wrote, with much justice, that the captain 
usually got all the honor when a ship was cap- 
tured, while the officers and men, who did quite 
as much toward success, got nothing, except from 
the generosity of the government; and he was 
deeply gratified when Congress, after awarding 
him the customary gold medal, and the officers 

80 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE 

silver medals, gave the crew a substantial sum 
in prize money. He gave up the Constitution 
to Captain Stewart, who, like Hull and himself, 
was destined to do great things in her. 

Bainbridge did not get to sea again during the 
war, but soon after the peace he went to the 
Mediterranean in command of a splendid squad- 
ron destined to punish the Dey of Algiers for 
certain treacherous acts toward American ves- 
sels. Bainbridge hoisted his flag on the Inde- 
pendence, seventy-four guns, — the first line-of- 
battle ship over which the American flag ever 
floated. Decatur, who had sailed in advance of 
the commander-in-chief, had already brought the 
Dey to terms before Bainbridge arrived, but it 
was thought well to show the squadron for some 
time in European waters. It consisted of the 
largest naval force that had, up to that time, ever 
been collected under an American flag officer. 
It consisted of one ship of the line, three splendid 
frigates, and fourteen smaller vessels, all well 
officered and manned, and fine ships of their 
class. At Gibraltar, where it lay some time, it 
was extremely admired, and the American officers 
received much attention from the officers of the 
British fleet and garrison. 

In 1820 Bainbridge again took a noble fleet to 
the Mediterranean. On reaching Gibraltar, he 
found a very bad state of affairs between the 
officers of the American squadron, which rendez- 

6 81 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

voiised there, and the British officers of the gar- 
rison and fleet. Misunderstandings, quarrels, and 
duels were so frequent that the Governor had taken 
upon himself to forbid the American officers from 
visiting the town or garrison. He expressed to 
Commodore Bainbridge, however, a desire for an 
amicable arrangement. Bainbridge at once re- 
quired that this prohibition be removed, and 
refused to treat until it was withdrawn, which 
was done. As the British officers had very great 
personal regard for Bainbridge, he was the man 
for smoothing down differences while maintaining 
the dignity of an American officer. From that 
day, American officers have been well treated at 
Gibraltar. This was Bainbridge's last cruise, and 
afterward his service was in command of differ- 
ent navy yards. It is said that in the course of 
his naval career he moved his family twenty-six 
times. His health began to fail after his fifty- 
fifth year, but he survived his sixtieth year. 
He died at Philadelphia in July, 1833, honored 
and admired to an extraordinary degree. His 
last words were, as he raised himself from his 
bed of death, — 

'' Give me my sword ! And call all hands to 
board the enemy ! " 



EDWARD PREBLE 

The story of Commodore Preble is, in itself, 
not only exciting but amusing ; and the gravest 
histories of him have not been able to keep the 
vagaries of the commodore's celebrated bad temper 
in abeyance. Preble was, unquestionably, one of 
the very greatest sea officers this country ever 
produced ; and however ridiculous the outbursts 
of his fiery temper might make him, they never 
made him contemptible. " The old man has the 
best heart, if he has the worst temper, in the 
world," was always said of him by the junior 
officers who were the victims of his wrath. 
Preble seems to have come naturally by his im- 
petuosity. His father before him, General Preble, 
brigadier in the provincial army, was one of the 
same sort, and it was commonly said by their 
neighbors and friends that " Ned has a good deal 
of the brigadier in him." The father and son 
were deeply attached to each other, although they 
often came in conflict. The last time was when 
Edward was about sixteen years old, in 1777. 
Men were so scarce, owing to most of them hav- 
ing enlisted in the continental army, that the old 
brigadier set his boys to hoeing potatoes on his 

83 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

farm near Portland, Maine. Edward had not 
worked very long when, throwing away his hoe, 
he declared he had no taste for such work, and 
walked himself off to the seacoast, where he en- 
tered the first vessel that would take him. The 
brigadier did not seem to regard this as wholly 
unjustifiable, and, seeing the boy was bent on the 
sea, got him a midshipman's commission in the 
infant navy of the colonies. In almost his first 
engagement Edward was taken prisoner, but was 
given his parole at New York. There is in exist- 
ence a letter written to him at that time by his 
father the brigadier, which shows great affection 
for the boy, and the strongest possible desire that 
he should conduct himself honorably. The old 
man, then over seventy, reminds his son " not to 
stain his honor by attempting to escape." And 
another recommendation is followed by the utter- 
ance of a great truth which it would be well if 
every human being acted upon. It is this : " Be 
kind and obliging to all ; for no man ever does 
a designed injury to another ivithout doing a 
greater to himself ^ 

Before this, an event had occurred which Preble 
occasionally alluded to in after life, and which, 
marvellous as it seems, must be accepted as true, 
for Preble was too close an observer to have been 
deceived, and too sensible a man to have assumed 
that he saw a thing which he did not really see. 

In the summer of 1779 young Preble was 

84 



EDWARD PREBLE 

attached to the Protector, a smart little conti- 
nental cruiser, under the command of Captain 
Williams, a brave and enterprising commander. 
The Protector was lying in one of the bays on 
the Maine coast, near the mouth of the Penobscot, 
when on a clear, still day a large serpent was seen 
lying motionless on the water close to the vessel. 
Captain Williams examined it through his spy- 
glass, as did every officer on the vessel. Young 
Preble was ordered to attack it in a twelve-oared 
boat, armed with a swivel. The boat was low- 
ered, the men armed with cutlasses and boarding- 
pikes, and quickly pulled toward the serpent. 
The creature raised its head about ten feet above 
the surface, and then began to make off to sea. 
The boat followed as rapidly as the men could 
force it through the water, and the swivel was 
fired at the serpent. This had no apparent effect, 
except to make the creature get out of the way 
the faster. Preble, however, had had a complete 
view of it for some time, and said, in his opinion, 
it was from one hundred to one hundred and fifty 
feet long, and was about as big around as a barrel. 
This account must be accepted as exactly true in 
every particular, coming from a man like Edward 
Preble ; and when he says he saw a sea-serpent 
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet 
long and as big around as a barrel and got close 
enough to fire at it, it must be absolutely true in 
every particular. It must be remembered that 

85 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Preble died long before sea-serpent stories became 
common.^ 

Preble saw much service in the Revolution, 
and was the hero of a very daring achievement 
not long after his onslaught on the sea-serpent. 
He was then serving as first lieutenant on the 
Winthrop, a small cruiser. Captain Little, of 
the Winthrop, heard there was an armed brig 
lying at anchor under the guns of the British 
breastworks on the Penobscot. He gave per- 
mission to Preble to cut the brig out, if possible. 
It was determined to steal in upon her at night, 
and carry her by boarding. On a dark night, 
therefore, Preble, with forty men, ran in un- 
perceived, and the Winthrop got alongside her 
enemy. They all wore their white shirts over 
their jackets, so that they could tell friends from 
foes when once on the British vessel. The officer 
of the deck of the British ship mistook the little 
Winthrop for a tender of their own, and called 
out, " Run aboard ! " "I am coming aboard," 
answered Captain Little, as his vessel shot along- 
side. Preble, with only fourteen men, leaped on 
the brig's deck, when the Winthrop caught a puff 
of wind and drifted off. As they passed ahead. 
Captain Little called out, — 

" Shall I send you some more men ? " 
'' No," coolly answered Preble ; " I have too 
many already." 

1 See Cooper's Naval Biography for this incident. 
86 



EDWARD PREBLE 

He had then secured the few men on deck, and 
soon had possession of the brig. The British 
batteries on shore opened fire on him, but Preble 
manao-ed to take the vessel out without serious 
damage and without losing a man. 

At the end of the Revolution the navy practi- 
cally ceased to exist, and Preble went into the 
merchant service, as so many of the officers were 
forced to do. But in 1798, when the quasi war 
with France took place, he re-entered the navy, 
which had been created anew. He was commis- 
sioned lieutenant in 1798, and was lucky enough 
the very next year to get the Essex, frigate of 
thirty-two guns. In her he started on what was 
then the longest cruise ever made by an American 
man-of-war. He went to the Indian Seas, to give 
convoy to a valuable fleet of merchant vessels 
engaged in the China and India trade, and which 
were liable to be attacked by French cruisers. 
He had no opportunity to distinguish himself 
especially in this duty, although he took care of 
the ships and got them all safely to New York. 
Soon afterward, the United States and France 
having come to terms, Preble went ashore and 
remained for two years. His health was bad in 
the beginning, but being much improved, in 1803 
he reported for duty, and was assigned to the 
Constitution, forty-four guns, then preparing for 
a Mediterranean cruise. 
At that time the relations of the United States 

87 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

with the piratical powers of the Barbary coast 
were most unsatisfactory. After years of sub- 
mission to their exactions, — a submission which 
seems almost incredible now, — the United States 
government determined to do in the end what it 
should have done in the beginning. This was to 
send a powerful squadron to attack these pirates 
of the land as well as the sea, and to force them 
to respect the persons and liberties of Americans. 
Preble was given the command of this squadron, 
with orders to punish Algiers, Morocco, Tunis, 
and especially Tripoli, so that it would not soon 
be forgotten. He hoisted the broad pennant of a 
commodore on the Constitution, and had under 
him the Philadelphia, a heavy frigate of thirty- 
eight guns, and five small vessels, — the Enter- 
prise, Argus, Nautilus, Vixen, and Siren. It was 
a remarkable squadron in many ways. The Con- 
stitution was probably the heaviest frigate afloat, 
and able to withstand a cannonade as well as 
any line-of -battle ship. In Preble she had a com- 
mander worthy of her. 

Preble was then about forty years of age, and 
his temper had not been sweetened by dyspepsia, 
of which he had been a victim for a long time. 
The Constitution was destined, under his com- 
mand, to win for herself the famous name of 
" Old Ironsides " from the way in which her stout 
timbers resisted the tremendous cannonade of the 
forts and fleets at Tripoli. It was in this splendid 



EDWARD PREBLE 

cruise, too, that she gained her well-maintained 
reputation for being a lucky ship. In all her 
great battles she never lost her commanding offi- 
cer, nor did any great slaughter ever take place 
on her decks, nor was she ever dismasted or 
seriously injured by war or weather, nor did she 
ever take the ground. Up to this time the Con- 
stellation had been the favorite frigate of the 
navy, but, beginning with Preble's great cruise, the 
Constitution became, once and for all, the darling 
ship, not only of the navy but of the nation. 

The only other heavy frigate in the squadron was 
the Philadelphia, thirty-eight guns, commanded by 
Captain William Bainbridge. Her tragic fate and 
the glorious manner in which it was avenged is one 
of the immortal incidents of the American navy.^ 

The five small vessels were commanded by 
five young men, lieutenants commandant, accord- 
ing to the rank of the day, of which three — 
Hull, Decatur, and Stewart — reached the great- 
est distinction. Somers, the fourth, had a short 
but glorious career. The fifth, Captain Smith, 
was a brave and capable officer, but his name has 
been overshadowed by the four young captains, 
who made a truly extraordinary constellation of 
genius. Among the midshipmen in the squadron 
were two, Thomas MacDonough and James Law- 
rence, who achieved reputations equal to the 
three great captains. 

1 See the biography of Bainbridge. 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

In the summer of 1803 the squadron sailed, 
as each ship was ready, for Gibraltar, which was 
the rendezvous. On the way out, the young 
officers on the Constitution had a taste of the 
commodore's temper, which was far from pleas- 
ing to them ; but they also found out that he had 
an excellent heart, and even a strict sense of 
justice, as soon as his explosions of wrath were 
over. And before very long they discovered 
the qualities of promptness, courage, and capacity 
which made Commodore Preble a really great 
commander. While off Gibraltar, on a dark 
night, the Constitution found herself quite close 
to a large ship. Preble immediately sent the 
men to quarters, for fear the stranger might 
be an enemy, and hailing began. The stranger 
seemed more anxious to ask questions than to 
answer them. This angered the fiery commodore, 
and he directed his first lieutenant to say if the 
ship did not give her name he would give her a 
shot. The stranger called back : "• If you give 
me a shot, I '11 give you a broadside." Preble, 
at this, seized the trumpet himself, and, spring- 
ing into the mizzen rigging, bawled out : " This 
is the United States ship Constitution, forty- 
four guns, Commodore Edward Preble. I am 
about to hail you for the last time. If you 
do not answer, I will give you a broadside. 
What ship is that ? Blow your matches, boys ! " 
The answer then came : " This is his Britan- 

90 



EDWARD PREBLE 

nic Majesty's ship Donegal, razee, of eighty 
guns." 

" I don't believe you," answered Preble, " and 
I shall stick by you till morning to make sure of 
your character." In a few minutes a boat came 
alongside, with an officer, who explained that the 
stranger was the Maidstone, frigate, of thirty- 
eight guns, and the delay in answering the hails 
and the false name given were because the Con- 
stitution had got close so unexpectedly that they 
wanted time to get the people to quarters in case 
she should prove an enemy. This one incident 
is said to have worked a complete revolution in 
the feelings of the officers and men toward Preble ; 
and although he was as stern and strict as ever, 
they could not but admire his firmness and cool 
courage in an emergency. 

Arrived at Gibraltar, Preble met for the first 
time his five young captains. Not one was twenty- 
five years of age, and none was married. At 
the first council of war held aboard the Consti- 
tution there was a universal shyness on their 
part when asked their views by the commodore. 
The fame of the " old man's " temper and severity 
had preceded him, and his boy captains felt no 
disposition whatever to either advise him or to 
disagree with him. When the council was over, 
Preble remained in the cabin, leaning his head 
on his hand, and quite overcome with dejection and 
depression. To Colonel Lear, an American con- 

91 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

sul, then on board, Preble bitterly remarked : " I 
have been indiscreet in accepting this command. 
Had I known how I was to be supported, I 
certainly should have declined it. Government 
has sent me here a parcel of schoolboys, to com- 
mand all my light craft ! " 

A year afterward, when the " parcel of school- 
boys " had covered themselves with glory, Colonel 
Lear asked the commodore if he remembered this 
speech. 

" Perfectly," answered the commodore. " But 
they turned out to be good schoolboys." 

After collecting his squadron at Gibraltar, 
Preble, with three vessels, stood for Tangier. 
The Emperor of Morocco pretended to be very 
friendly witli the Americans, and sent them pres- 
ents of bullocks, sheep, and vegetables ; but 
Preble, while treating him with respect, yet kept 
his ships cleared for action and the men at quar- 
ters day and night, lest the Moors should show 
treachery. On going asliore with some of his 
officers to pay a visit of ceremony to the Em- 
peror, he gave a characteristic order to the com- 
manding officer of the ship : " If I do not return, 
enter into no treaty or negotiation for me, but 
open fire at once." On reaching the palace he 
was told that the party must leave their side- 
arms outside before entering the Emperor's pres- 
ence. Preble replied firmly that it was not the 
custom of the American navy, and that they 

92 



EDWARD PREBLE 

should enter as they were, — which they did. The 
Emperor soon found what sort of a man he had 
to deal with, and Preble had no further trouble 
with him. A few weeks after the arrival of the 
squadron, Preble heard the news of the loss of the 
Philadelphia. Nothing better shows the steadfast 
and generous nature of the man than the manner 
in which he accepted this misfortune. No regrets 
were heard from him; no railing accusations 
against Bainbridge ; but a prompt and deter- 
mined grappling with the terrible complication 
of having a great part of his force turned against 
him; and the most tender consideration for the 
feelings as well as the rights of Bainbridge and 
his men. 

Preble was enabled to provide himself with 
bomb-vessels and gunboats by the aid of the 
King of Naples, who, like all the other European 
sovereigns, wished to see the nest of pirates ex- 
terminated. The first one of the "schoolboys" 
to distinguish himself was Decatur, ^ who, in Feb- 
ruary, 1804, crept by night into the harbor of 
Tripoli, and earned immortality by destroying 
the Philadelphia as she swung to her anchors, 
in the face of one hundred and nineteen great 
guns and nineteen vessels which surrounded her. 
The destruction of the Philadelphia not only wiped 
away the stain of losing her, in the first instance, 
but was of the greatest advantage to Commodore 

1 See the biography of Decatur. 
93 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Preble in the bombardment of Tripoli, as the 
frigate would have been a formidable addition 
to the defence of the town. 

In the summer of 1804, his preparations being 
made, Commodore Preble sailed for Tripoli, where 
he arrived on the 25th of July. He had one 
frigate, — the Constitution, — three brigs, three 
schooners, two bomb-vessels, and six gunboats. 
With these he had to reduce an enemy fighting 
one hundred and nineteen great guns behind a 
circle of forts, with a fleet of a gun-brig, two 
schooners, two large galleys, and nineteen gun- 
boats, all of which could be manoeuvred both in- 
side the rocky harbor and in the offing. 

On the morning of the 3d of August the four 
hundred officers and men of the Philadelphia, 
confined in the dungeons of the Bashaw's castle, 
were gladdened by the sight of the American flag 
in the offing, and soon the music of the American 
guns showed them that their comrades were bat- 
tling for them. On that day began a series of 
desperate assaults on the forts and war ships of 
Tripoli that for splendor and effect have never 
been excelled. Preble could fire only thirty 
heavy guns at once, while the Tripolitans could 
train one hundred and nineteen on the Ameri- 
cans. During all these bombardments, while the 
gunboats, in two divisions, were engaging the 
Tripolitan gunboats, running aboard of them, 
with hand-to-hand fighting, sinking and burning 

94 



EDWARD PREBLE 

them, the mighty Constitution would come into 
position with the same steadiness as if she were 
working into a friendly roadstead, and, thunder- 
ing out\er whole broadside at once, would deal 
destruction on the forts and vessels. In vain the 
Tripolitans would concentrate their fire on her. 
Throwing her topsail back, she would move slowly 
when they expected her to move fast, and would 
carry sail when they expected her to stand still, 
and her fire never slackened for an instant. It 
was after this first day's bombardment that the 
sailors nicknamed her "Old Ironsides." She 
and her company seemed to be invulnerable. Es- 
capes from calamity were many, but accidents 
were few. One of the closest shaves was when, 
in the midst of the hottest part of the action, a 
round shot entered a stern port directly in line 
of Preble, and within a few feet of him. It 
struck full on a quarterdeck gun, which it 
smashed to splinters, that flew about among a 
crowd of officers and men, wounding only one, 
and that slightly. Had it gone a little farther, it 
would have cut Preble in two. 

After one of the fiercest of the boat attacks a 
collision occurred between Preble and the scarcely 
less fiery Decatur, which is one of the most re- 
markable that ever occurred in a man-of-war. At 
the close of the attack Decatur came on board 
the flagship to report. Preble had been watching 
him, and fully expected that all of the Tripolitan 

95 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

gunboats would be captured. But, after taking 
three of them, Decatur found it impossible to 
do more. As he stepped on the Constitution's 
deck, still wearing the round jacket in which he 
fought, his face grimed with powder, and stained 
with blood from a slight wound, he said quietly 
to Preble : " Well, Commodore, I have brought 
you out three of the boats." Preble, suddenly 
catching him by the collar with both hands, shook 
him violently, and shrieked at him : " Aye, sir, 
why did you not bring me more ? " The officers 
were paralyzed with astonishment at the scene, 
and Decatur, who was scarcely less fiery than 
Preble, laid his hand upon his dirk. Suddenly 
the commodore turned abruptly on his heel and 
went below. Decatur immediately ordered his 
boat, and declared he would leave the ship at the 
instant ; but the officers crowded around him 
and begged him to wait until the commodore had 
cooled down. Just then the orderly appeared, 
with a request that he should wait on the com- 
modore in the cabin. Decatur at first declared 
he would not go, but at last was reluctantly per- 
suaded not to disobey his superior by refusing to 
answer a request, which was really an order. At 
last he went, sullen and rebellious. He stayed 
below a long time, and the officers began to be 
afraid that the two had quarrelled worse than 
ever. After a while one of them, whose rank en- 
titled him to seek the commodore, went below 

96 



EDWARD PREBLE 

and tapped softly at the cabin door. He received 
no answer, when he quietly opened the door a 
little. There sat the young captain and the 
commodore close together, and both in tears. 
From that day there never were two men who re- 
spected each other more than Preble and Decatur. 

For more than a month these terrific assaults 
kept up. The Bashaw, who had demanded a 
ransom of a thousand dollars each for the Phil- 
adelphia's men, and tribute besides, fell in his 
demands ; but Preble sent him word that every 
American in Tripolitan prisons must and should 
be released without the payment of a dollar. 
The Tripolitans had little rest, and never knew 
the day that the invincible frigate might not be 
pounding their forts and ships, while the enter- 
prising flotilla of gunboats would play liavoc 
with their own smaller vessels. The Tripolitans 
had been considered as unequalled hand-to-hand 
fighters ; but the work of the Americans on the 
night of the destruction of the Philadelphia, and 
the irresistible dash with which they grappled 
witli and boarded the Tripolitan gunboats, dis- 
concerted, while it did not dismay, their fierce 
antagonists. 

Sometimes the squadron was blown off, and 
sometimes it had to claw off the land, but it 
always returned. The loss of the Americans 
was small ; that of the Tripolitans great. One of 
the American gunboats exploded, and a terrible 
7 97 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

misfortune happened in the loss of the ketch In- 
trepid ^ and her gallant crew. Reinforcements 
were promised from the United States, which 
did not come in time, and Preble met with all the 
dangers and delays that follow the making of 
war four tliousand miles from home ; but he was 
the same indomitable commander, feared alike 
by his enemies and his friends. On the 10th of 
September the President, forty-four guns, and 
the Constellation, thirty-eight guns, arrived ; the 
John Adams had come in some days before. By 
one of those strange accidents, so common in the 
early days of the navy. Commodore Barron had 
been sent out in the President to relieve Com- 
modore Preble by the government at Washington, 
which, in those days of slow communication, 
knew nothing of Preble's actions, except that he 
was supposed to be bombarding Tripoli. The 
season of active operations was over, however, and 
nothing could be done until the following summer. 
Meanwhile the Bashaw had a very just apprehen- 
sion of the return of such determined enemies as 
the Americans another year, and gave unmistak- 
able signs of a willingness to treat. To that he 
had been brought by Commodore Preble and his 
gallant officers and crews. Knowing the work to 
be completed, Preble willingly handed over his 
command to Commodore Barron. He had the 
pleasure of giving Decatur, then a post captain, 

1 See the biography of Somers. 
98 



EDWARD PREBLE 

the temporary command of the Constitution. Be- 
fore leaving the squadron, he received Qvery testi- 
monial of respect, and even affection, from the very 
men who had so bitterly complained of his severe 
discipline and fiery temper. It was said at the 
time, that when the squadron first knew him he 
had not a friend in it, and when he left it he 
had not an enemy. At that day duelling was 
common among the privileged classes all over 
the western world, especially with army and navy 
officers ; but so well did Commodore Preble 
have his young officers in hand that not a single 
duel took place in the squadron as long as he 
commanded it. 

The younger officers were supplied with an end- 
less fund of stories about " the old man's " out- 
bursts, and delighted in telling of one especial 
instance which convulsed every officer and man 
on the Constitution. A surgeon's mate was 
needed on the ship, and a little Sicilian doctor 
applied for the place and got it. He asked the 
commodore if he must wear uniform. To which 
the commodore replied, " Certainly." Some days 
afterward the commodore happened to be in the 
cabin, wearing his dressing-gown and shaving. 
Suddenly a gentleman in uniform was announced. 
Now, in those days flag officers wore two epau- 
lets, the others but one, and the commodore him- 
self was the only man in the squadron who was 
entitled to wear two. But the stranger had on 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

two epaulets ; besides, a sword, a cocked hat, and 
an enormous amount of gold lace. 

The commodore surveyed this apparition si- 
lently, puzzled to make out who this imposing 
personage was, until, with a smirk, the bedizened 
Sicilian announced himself as the new surgeon's 
mate. Furious at his presumption in appearing 
in such a rig, Preble uttered a howl of rage, 
which scared the little doctor so that he fled up 
on deck, closely followed by the commodore, his 
face covered with lather, and the open razor still 
in his hand. The little doctor ran along the deck, 
still pursued by the commodore with the razor, 
until, reaching the forward end of the ship, the 
poor Sicilian sprang overboard and struck out 
swimming for the shore, and was never seen on 
the ship again. 

Preble transferred his flag to the John Adams, 
and visited Gibraltar, where he was received 
with distinction by the British officers. He had 
many friends among them, especially Sir Alex- 
ander Ball, one of Nelson's captains ; and the 
great Nelson himself knew and admired the ser- 
vices of the Americans before Tripoli. The 
Spaniards and Neapolitans, who had suffered 
much from the corsairs, rejoiced at the drubbing 
Preble had given them, and at the prospect that 
the Americans imprisoned in the Bashaw's castle 
would soon be released. The Pope, Pius the 
Seventh, said : " This American commodore has 

100 



EDWARD PREBLE 

done more to humble the piratical powers of the 
Barbary coast than all the Christian powers of 
Europe put together." 

Preble sailed for home in December, 1804, and 
reached Washington the 4th of March, 1805, the 
day of President Jefferson's first inauguration. 
The news of his success and the early release 
of the Philadelphia's officers and men liad pre- 
ceded him. Congress passed a vote of thanks to 
him and the officers and men under him. President 
Jefferson, although of the opposite party in poli- 
tics from Preble, offered him the head of the 
Navy Department, but it was declined. Preble's 
health had steadily grown worse, and soon after 
his return to the United States it was seen that 
his days were few. He lingered until the sum- 
mer of 1807, when at Portland, Maine, near his 
birthplace, he passed away, calmly and resignedly. 
He left a widow and one child. 

Preble was in his forty-seventh year when he 
died. He was tall and slight, of gentlemanly 
appearance and polished manners. He left be- 
hind him a reputation for great abilities, used 
with an eye single to his country's good, and a 
character for probity and courage seldom equalled 
and never surpassed. 



101 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

Among the most brilliant and picturesque figures 
in American naval history stands Stephen Decatur. 
His achievements were of that dashing and splen- 
did quality which leaves a blaze upon the page of 
history ; and the greatest of them, the destruc- 
tion of the Philadelphia frigate in the harbor of 
Tripoli, earned from Lord Nelson the praise of 
being " the most bold and daring act of the 
age." 

Decatur came justly by his genius for the sea. 
His father was a captain in the navy of the 
United States, and his grandfather had been a 
French naval officer. His was no rude struggle 
with adversity. The child of gentle people, he 
entered the navy in 1797, with every advantage 
of education and training. He was then eighteen 
years of age, — old for a midshipman, when boys 
entered at thirteen and were often acting lieuten- 
ants at sixteen. Decatur was a handsome man, 
tall and well made. 

Although of a disposition the most generous, 
he was always of an impetuous and even domi- 
neering nature. Strict habits of self-control 
modified this impetuosity, but to the day of his 

102 




Stephen Decatur 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

death he was subject to gusts of temper whenever 
he came across any instance of cruelty or mean- 
ness or oppression. 

A famous example of this was shown shortly 
before his untimely death. He was then at the 
summit of his fame, one of the ranking officers of 
the navy, a navy commissioner, and living in 
grand style for the times in the city of Washing- 
ton. He had a favorite dog, and one day, when 
the dog was lying quietly asleep on the doorstep 
of Decatur's house, a policeman came along and 
wantonly shot the poor creature. Decatur hap- 
pened to see the whole affair, and, rushing out, 
he gave the policeman then and there a terrific 
walloping. The policeman, smarting from the 
injury to his dignity as well as the pounding of 
his bones, swore out a warrant, and Decatur was 
commanded to appear before the Mayor of Wash- 
ington. Furious at the turn of affairs, Decatur 
flatly refused to obey the constable's summons. 
In vain the officer pleaded with him to go quietly. 
Decatur would not budge a step. At last the man 
brought a posse and proceeded to take him by 
force. Decatur would not be guilty of the crime 
of resisting the law, but he proposed to let them 
get him before the magistrate the best way they 
could. He not only would not walk a step, but 
lay down on the floor, and, as he was a large and 
heavy man, it was a job to lift him up and put him 
in a carriage ; but at last it was accomplished. 

103 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

By the time they reached the Mayor's court, 
Decatur's temper, never mild, was red hot. He 
proceeded to harangue and even to browbeat the 
Mayor, who was a very insignificant person com- 
pared with Commodore Decatur. At the first blast, 
though, the Mayor proved that he had a spirit of his 
own. " Look here, Commodore," said he, " when 
you are on the quarterdeck of your ship you com- 
mand. I '11 have you understand that this court- 
room is my quarterdeck, and I command here, and 
if I hear another disrespectful word from you I '11 
send you to jail for as long as I please." Decatur, 
paralyzed with astonishment, looked at the Mayor 
for a long time ; then, suddenly bursting into a 
shout of laughter, apologized for his behavior and 
submitted to be fined for thrashing the policeman. 

Such was the man through life, — daring, gen- 
erous, overbearing sometimes, but always respond- 
ing to what was just and courageous in others. 

Decatur's first cruise was made in the United 
States, frigate, forty-four guns, wearing the broad 
pennant of Commodore Barry. Charles Stewart, 
afterward the celebrated commodore, was one of 
the junior lieutenants of the ship, and the heroic 
and unfortunate Richard Somers was one of the 
midshipmen. 

Decatur and Somers had been schoolmates in 
Philadelphia, and the association formed there 
was cemented into a devoted friendship in the 
steerage of the United States. No two natures 

104 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

were ever more dissimilar than that of the impet- 
uous Decatur and the gentle and retiring but 
indomitable Somers. From the beginning they 
were actuated by a noble professional rivalry ; yet 
their close and affectionate friendship was that of 
brothers, and their devotion to each other has 
become a tradition in the navy. 

The United States was a splendid frigate, fast 
and weatherly, and, from the regularity with 
which she made time on her cruises, was known 
as " Old Wagoner." Commodore Barry was an 
old officer who had done good service in the 
Revolution, and when he took command of the 
squadron of which " Old Wagoner " was the flag- 
ship, he sailed at once for the West Indies, to 
retaliate on the French ships which had preyed 
upon American commerce. It was not the good 
fortune of the United States to meet a frigate 
of equal force, so that her men and their mettle 
could be tried, but she did good service in clear- 
ing out the French privateers which infested 
those seas. Decatur saw much active cruising, 
and gave indications of that dashing courage, 
masterly seamanship, and fertile resource which 
he developed the instant he got command of a ship. 
He made several cruises, reached his lieu- 
tenancy, and was attached to the Essex when she 
went under Captain Bainbridge to the Mediter- 
ranean, in 1802. During the troubles the officers 
of the Essex had, at Barcelona, with the officers of 

105 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

the Spanish guardship, Decatur was conspicuous. 
Having been annoyed and insulted by the Spanish 
officers, on his way to and from his ship, he went 
aboard the Spaniard, and asked for her command- 
ing officer. He was absent, and Decatur left this 
message, which he shouted out in his tremendous 
voice, on the Spanish quarterdeck : '^ Tell him that 
Lieutenant Decatur of the Essex declares him to 
be a scoundrelly coward ; and if Lieutenant Deca- 
tur meets him ashore, he will cut his ears off ! " 
A duel in the case was narrowly averted. 

At twenty-four Decatur got his first command, 
the Argus, one of the two sixteen-gun brigs which 
were to assist Commodore Preble in the reduc- 
tion of the Barbary powers. This was a heavier 
vessel than a young officer of Decatur's rank 
was entitled to, and he was given the command 
of her only to take her out of the Mediter- 
ranean, where he was to exchange with Isaac 
Hull, then a lieutenant commandant, and take 
Hull's vessel, the Enterprise, schooner, of twelve 
guns. The Enterprise, like the great frigates 
Constitution and Constellation, was a favorite 
of fortune. She had a glorious record for so 
small a vessel, and fought ten spirited actions 
during her career, winding up with the capture 
of the Boxer in the war of 1812-15. She was 
lucky also in escaping many times from superior 
force, and had an uninterrupted course of suc- 
cess. Her good fortune really consisted in the 

106 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

people who manned her, and the officers who 
commanded her, — of whom Decatur was not tlie 
least distinguished. He had the good fortune to 
have as his first lieutenant in the little schooner 
James Lawrence, a man after Decatur's own heart, 
who was worthy of his ship and his captain. 

Decatur was one of the young commanders 
who took part in the council of war called by 
Commodore Preble at Gibraltar, in the autumn 
of 1803, at which the peppery commodore was so 
disgusted that he called them " a parcel of school- 
boys." But most of them were shortly destined 
to immortality. 

After collecting his force, Preble sailed for 
Syracuse, that historic city, beautiful in its decay. 
The object of the American commander was to 
establish a base of supplies, and to get the co- 
operation of the King of the Two Sicilies, who 
was also at war with the Bashaw of Tripoli. It 
was while at Syracuse, in the autumn of 1803, 
that the plan to destroy the Philadelphia in the 
harbor of Tripoli was determined upon. The 
credit of the original idea has been separately 
claimed for Preble, Bainbridge, and Decatur ; 
and the fact probably is that it occurred at prac- 
tically the same time to each one of them. Every 
one of Preble's dashing young captains desired 
the honor of making the attempt, and the fact 
that Decatur obtained the distinction is presump- 
tive proof that he had a share in the first incep- 

107 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

tion of the plan. Stewart's claim to a part in 
the undertaking was so strong that to him fell 
the honor of supporting, in the Siren, Decatur's 
proposed attack. 

In order to look over the ground, Preble in 
the Constitution, accompanied by Decatur in the 
Enterprise, sailed for Tripoli, in December, 1803. 
Decatur, with his characteristic boldness, offered 
to make the attempt with the Enterprise ; but 
Commodore Preble prudently concluded to use a 
ketch, the Meshouda, which Decatur had lately 
captured and which was of a build and rig com- 
mon in Mediterranean waters. 

As Decatur meant to get inside the harbor of 
Tripoli by stratagem, it was important to have a 
vessel that would not attract attention. The 
ketch was fittingly renamed the Intrepid, and 
preparations were begun for the desperate adven- 
ture with her. 

Decatur was extremely anxious, as was Stewart, 
to cut the Philadelphia out; but Commodore 
Preble, as bold as they were, but older and more 
prudent, saw the insurmountable difficulties in 
the way of bringing so large a ship as the Phil- 
adelphia out of a dangerous and unknown harbor 
such as Tripoli. He therefore gave strict orders 
that no attempt should be made to carry her out, 
but that she should be destroyed at her moorings ; 
and the commodore was certain to be obeyed. 

The Intrepid was converted into a fire-ship, or 

108 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

" infernal." She was filled with combustibles, and 
it was designed that she should steal in at night 
in disguise, throw the combustibles into the Phila- 
delphia, fire them, and then make a race for her life. 
The nature of this enterprise required men of 
extraordinary steadiness as well as courage ; but 
they could be easily supplied from the American 
squadron. It was intended to man and officer 
the Intrepid as far as possible from the Enter- 
prise ; and in pursuance of this, on the after- 
noon of the 3d of February, 1803, all hands on 
the Enterprise were called up and aft. Decatur 
then stated the nature of the service for which 
the Intrepid was destined, — a service of heroic 
possibilities but appalling danger, — and then 
called for sixty-two volunteers. Instead of sixty- 
two men, the whole ship's company down to the 
smallest boy volunteered with a cheer. This was 
what any captain would have desired, and Decatur 
was forced to make a choice. He selected sixty- 
two of the youngest and most active men in the 
crew, who showed their gratification by saying, 
" Thankee, sir," as each man was told off. He 
could make no choice among his lieutenants, but 
took them all — Lawrence, Joseph Bainbridge, and 
Thorn — and one of his midshipmen, the indomi- 
table Macdonough, the rest being necessarily left 
to take care of the ship. He was compelled to 
make a draft of junior officers from the Consti- 
tution, and asked for midshipmen Morris, Laws, 

109 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Izard, Davis, and Rowe. There was also a sur- 
geon, Dr. Heermann, and Salvatore Catalano, a 
Sicilian pilot, who, in return for his services, was 
made a master in the American navy, and had an 
honorable career in it. 

On the evening of the 3d of February the 
Intrepid sailed upon her glorious expedition, 
accompanied by the Siren, whose character as 
a ship of war was thoroughly concealed. The 
ketch was to pass for a merchant vessel from 
Malta, and her officers had the costumes of Mal- 
tese sailors in which to disguise themselves. The 
two vessels reached the entrance to the harbor of 
Tripoli on the 9th of February, but a terrific storm 
arose, which drove them off. For six days they 
were storm-tossed in the gulf of Sydra, but on the 
16th of February they found themselves together 
again off Tripoli. The evening was mild and 
beautiful, and the wind was so light that the 
Siren was almost becalmed in the offing, but 
the Intrepid met a wandering breeze that car- 
ried her within the rocky harbor. Once inside, 
a good breeze was blowing, which swept them 
rapidly forward, and threatened to bring the 
Intrepid up with the Philadelphia before it was 
quite dark enough to do the work meant for her. 
As it would not do to excite suspicion by taking 
in sail, Decatur had buckets and sails towed astern 
which acted as a drag, and brought the ketch in 
very slowly. When Decatur noticed that the 
no 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

Siren in the offing had no wind and consequently 
could be of no assistance to him, he remarked 
cheerfully to his men, " Never mind ; the fewer 
the number the greater the glory." 

The ketch sailed leisurely in, having the ap- 
pearance of a merchant ship from a Mediterra- 
nean port, after a considerable voyage. 

The crew had been sent below, and only a few 
officers, disguised as Maltese sailors, stood or sat 
about the deck. Before them lay the Bashaw's 
castle, with its menacing battlements, and all 
around the harbor was a chain of forts that could 
make a circle of fire for an invader. Directly 
under the guns of the castle loomed the tall black 
hull of the Philadelphia, flying the piratical flag of 
Tripoli, while moored near her were three smaller 
cruisers and nineteen gunboats. 

The moon had risen, and by its clear illumina- 
tion tlie " infernal " steered straight across the 
blue waters of the harbor for the Philadelphia. 
When about two hundred yards off, Salvatore 
Catalano, the pilot, hailed the Tripolitan officer 
of the deck on the Philadelphia, who lounged 
over the rail smoking a long pipe. 

''This is the ketch Stella, from Malta," he 
said in the lingua franca of the East. " We lost 
our anchors and cables in the gale, and would 
like to lie by you during the night." 

"Your request is unusual, but we will grant 
it," answered the Tripolitan officer. 
Ill 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

The officer then asked what vessel it was that 
was lying in the offing. The pilot, with much 
readiness, replied that it was the Transfer, a 
cruiser lately bought from the British by the Tri- 
politan government, and which was daily expected. 
This answer seemed to satisfy the Tripolitan, and 
a boat then put off from the Philadelphia with 
a fast, and at the same moment a boat also put 
off, under the command of Lawrence, from the 
Intrepid. On meeting, Lawrence coolly took the 
fast from the Tripolitan boat, and soon had 
the hawser aboard of the ketch. A moment more 
and the supposed Maltese sailors, in their jackets 
and red fezzes, roused on the hawser and breasted 
the ketch along under the Philadelphia's quar- 
ter. Had the slightest suspicion been aroused 
then, they would have been blown out of the 
water by a single broadside. But the Americans 
retained their coolness in their desperate situation. 

Presently the Intrepid drew out from the black 
shadow of the frigate's hull into a great patch of 
white moonlight. The Tripolitans saw the an- 
chors on the deck, with the cables coiled around 
them. Instantly a cry rang through the ship, 
" Americanos ! Americanos ! " 

At the same moment the Intrepid came grind- 
ing up against the frigate's stern quarter, and, 
as if by magic, was alive with men. Decatur 
shouted, " Board ! " and the Americans dashed 
at the frigate's deck. 

112 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

Decatur, and two midshipmen, Morris and Laws, 
leaped at the same moment into the chain plates. 
Decatm' and Morris made a spring for the rail ; 
Decatur's foot slipped, else he would have been 
first upon the Philadelphia's deck ; but Morris, 
an agile young midshipman, was a moment before 
him. Midshipman Laws dashed at a port, and 
would have been before Morris in entering the 
ship, but the pistols in his boarding-belt caught 
for a moment between the gun and the port, and 
he was third to stand upon the deck. The rest of 
the Americans swarmed into the ship. 

The Tripolitans, completely surprised, yet fought 
desperately. They had been accounted the best 
hand-to-hand fighters in the world, but they were 
no match for the Americans. Within fifteen 
minutes every one of them had been cut down 
or driven overboard, and the Philadelphia was 
once more an American ship. Meanwhile lights 
had been moving about on shore, and the vessels 
and forts saw that something was happening on 
the Philadelphia, but not enough could be seen 
to justify them in firing on their own ship. In 
a few minutes more, though, smoke was pouring 
from the ports, and flames were running up her 
tar-soaked rigging. The Americans, with almost 
incredible swiftness, had hoisted powder aboard 
the ship and fired her in a dozen places. Two 
guns, double-shotted, were dragged amidships and 
pointed down the main hatch to blow her bottom 

8 113 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

out. They then leaped into the ketch ; but at 
that moment the most awful danger of that ter- 
rible yet glorious night awaited them. The fast 
became jammed, and the jigger of the ketch 
caught fire as it flapped against the burning 
frigate, while below, on the Intrepid's deck, lay 
all her powder exposed. The officers, undis- 
mayed however, drew their swords and hacked at 
the hawser until it parted. Then, under sweeps 
and sails, the Intrepid made for the offing, the 
men pulling for their lives, while the ships and 
forts, now thoroughly aroused, opened all their 
batteries on this daring invader. But the shot 
fell short, and raised only showers of spray, at 
which the Americans laughed and jeered. 

The Philadelphia was now ablaze from rail to 
truck, and sea and sky were lighted up by the 
flames of the burning ship. Her guns began to 
go off as the fire reached them, and she poured 
a cannonade from every quarter. The ketch was 
plainly visible as she made rapidly for the offing, 
and a hundred guns were trained on her. At 
this supreme moment the Americans gave one 
last proof of their contempt of danger. The men 
stopped rowing, and every officer and man, rising 
to his feet, gave three thundering American cheers. 
Then they bent to their oars with giant strokes, 
and in a little while were safe under the Siren's 
guns. They had not lost a man in the glorious 
achievement. 

114 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

The Siren, meanwhile, in the offing, had hoisted 
out her boats, and was ready to assist the In- 
trepid, in case she needed it. The progress of 
the ketch was plainly visible until she was lost 
in the shadow of the Philadelphia's black hull. 
In a few minutes a single rocket skyward showed 
the anxious watchers that the Philadelphia was 
boarded; and almost at once the blaze rushed 
up the rigging, and enveloped the tall hull, light- 
ing up the night with a lurid glare, while the 
guns of the doomed frigate and those of the cas- 
tle, the ships, and the forts thundered out. Then 
they knew that the great enterprise was accom- 
plished. The boats pulled toward the harbor 
entrance; soon the ketch had shot across the 
illuminated water, and had reached them. Deca- 
tur, jumping into one of the Siren's boats, was 
quickly pulled toward the brig. Stewart, stand- 
ing in the gangway, saw the boat approach, and 
a man, in a sailor's round jacket and a fez, sprang 
over the gangway, into his arms. It was Decaturt 
Fifteen days after leaving Syracuse, the ketch 
and the brig were seen standing in the harbor, 
the signal of success flying from the Intrepid's 
masthead. For this splendid adventure Decatur 
was made a post-captain, his commission dating 
from the 16th of February, and the officers and 
men were rewarded. 

Before, however, receiving his commission, 
Decatur was yet to do glorious things in the bom- 

115 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

bardment of Tripoli during the following summer. 
Commodore Preble, in arranging the boat attacks, 
which he supported by the batteries of the " Old 
Ironsides," and all his brigs and schooners, 
gave the command of the right division to Rich- 
ard Somers, Decatur's bosom friend, and the left 
division to Decatur. On the 2d of August the 
first attack was made. The Tripolitans had a 
flotilla of fourteen gunboats to resist the six the 
Americans could muster ; and they had, in reserve, 
behind the rocks in the harbor, five more gun- 
boats and several heavy galleys, besides their 
forts, batteries, and larger clubs. The attack was 
begun about half past one in the afternoon, the 
whole force standing in ; the Constitution ap- 
proaching as close as possible and pouring in 
many broadsides against the forts, the brigs and 
schooners supporting the gunboats, while the 
latter dashed at the Tripolitan gunboats and gal- 
leys with a swiftness and impetuosity that were 
simply tremendous. The attack soon assumed a 
character of hand-to-hand fighting that is seldom 
seen in modern days. Decatur's own vessel laid 
aboard a large Tripolitan gunboat, and in spite of 
the most desperate resistance, grappled with her. 
She was divided in the middle by a long narrow 
hatchway, and in this the Tripolitans mustered 
to drive back the Americans when they entered. 
Immediately Decatur was over the side, followed 
by his lieutenant, Mr. Thorne, by Macdonough, 

116 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

and all the Americans in the gunboat's crew. 
They advanced together with pikes and cutlasses, 
and then ensued a contest, man to man, figliting 
every inch of the way, which resulted in cutting 
down or driving overboard every Tripolitan officer 
and man. 

Just as the Tripolitan ensign was hauled 
down, it was seen that James Decatur, Decatur's 
younger brother, who was in command of another 
gunboat and had carried her into action with 
great spirit, had fallen by a shot from a Tri- 
politan which had surrendered and then basely 
resumed firing. James Decatur was carried aboard 
the Constitution to die, but it was no time to 
indulge in private griefs ; and Decatur, without 
knowing whether his brother were living or dead, 
turned upon the next foe. This was another 
gun-vessel, which was commanded by a gigantic 
Tripolitan, who seemed to court rather than avoid 
a hand-to-hand contest with the Americans. 

Decatur ran him aboard, and then with a 
cheer the Americans leaped into the gunboat. 
Seeing the force with which they had to contend, 
Decatur waited until his men could form a line. 
They then advanced resolutely, led by their offi- 
cers. They were greatly outnumbered, but by 
standing together they made the most of their 
number. The Tripolitan captain and Decatur 
soon met face to face. The Tripolitan, a much 
larger and more powerful man than Decatur, 

117 



TWELA^E NAVAL CAPTAINS 

stood on tiptoe to deal a more tremendous blow. 
Decatur rushed at him with a pike. The Tripoli- 
tan wrenched the pike from him, and raised it to 
strike. Decatur then drew his sword, and in 
trying to parry the pike, the sword broke off at 
the hilt, and the pike entered Decatur's breast. 
Pulling it out, he grappled with the Tripolitan, 
and both came to the deck together. Tlie 
Tripolitan attempted to draw his dagger ; but 
Decatur, firmly grasping his arm, managed to 
get a small pistol from his pocket, and fired it. 
With a scream the Tripolitan relinquished his 
hold and rolled over. As Decatur rose to his 
feet, another Tripolitan raised his sword ; as the 
blow was about to descend on Decatur's head, 
Reuben James, a powerful young sailor, threw up 
his arm, and took the blow, which almost severed 
his arm from his body. The Americans were 
now beginning to get a little the advantage ; and 
by coolness and resolution they were soon enabled 
to get possession of the gunboat. The Tripoli- 
tan loss showed the nature of the fighting, fifty- 
two men being killed and wounded out of a total of 
eighty in the two captured gunboats. The loss of 
the Americans was relatively small, owing to their 
plan of standing together and attacking as a body.^ 
Four more of these ferocious attacks, combined 

1 It was after this attack that the celebrated scene occurred in 
the Constitution between Decatur and Commodore Preble, as 
related in Preble's life. 

118 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

with a terrific cannonade from the Constitu- 
tion, and the assistance from the brigs and 
schooners, lost the Tripolitans many of their 
most serviceable craft, and made those that were 
left very shy of coming outside the reefs to meet 
the " Americanos." The great guns on the Con- 
stitution had knocked to pieces many of the 
more exposed land batteries, and brought down 
the Bashaw's tone immeasurably. He was then 
anxious to negotiate, but Commodore Preble 
would listen to nothing but the unconditional 
surrender of Bainbridge and his men. 

The loss of the Americans was small in num- 
bers but great in value during the bombardment, 
and was confined chiefly to the gunboats. In 
the second attack, on the 7th of August, one of 
the American gunboats blew up, killing her 
brave commander. Lieutenant Caldwell, and sev- 
eral others. When the smoke cleared away 
after the awful explosion, it was seen that the 
forward part of the vessel still floated. On it 
was the long twenty-six-pounder, which was her 
chief weapon, and which the gun's crew, directed 
by Midshipman Spence, had just loaded. With 
as much coolness as if there had been a wliole 
vessel instead of a half one beneath them, the 
gun was fired, the eleven men on the wreck gave 
three cheers, led by the midshipman, and then 
sprang into the water. All were picked up, and 
fought during the rest of the action, 

119 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

There was another attack on the 28th of 
August, and again on the 3d of September. 
In this last the Constitution bore the brunt 
of the Tripolitan fire, and did fearful execution 
with her heavy guns. And on the 4:h of Sep- 
tember occurred the terrible tragedy of the blow- 
ing up of the ketch Intrepid.^ 

The beginning of the autumn marked the end 
of the season for active operations, and the Amer- 
ican squadron withdrew, with a promise to return 
the next season and do yet more damage, — a 
calamity which the Bashaw avoided by promptly 
giving up the American prisoners the next spring, 
when the Americans, true to their word, returned 
in greater force. A relief squadron which had 
been sent out from the United States arrived 
just at the close of the campaign before Tripoli. 
It brought out Decatur's commission as a post- 
captain, as well as lesser promotions for the other 
young commanding officers. Commodore Preble, 
on being relieved by Commodore Barron, turned 
over the Constitution to Decatur, who thus, at 
twenty-five, commanded what was probably the 
finest frigate in the world. His rank, however, 
as the youngest post-captain in the navy did not 
entitle him to keep her very long, and he was 
transferred to the Congress, a smart thirty- 
eight-gun frigate. She was in the squadron of 
Commodore Rodgers, which, after the humbling 

1 See the biography of Richard Somers. 
120 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

of Tripoli, was engaged in bringing the Bey of 
Tunis to terms. Commodore Rodgers sent Deca- 
tur, who was well known to the heads of Barbary 
powers, to negotiate a treaty with Tunis. The Bey 
at first refused to receive him. Decatur returned 
to his ship, which was cleared for action, and 
sent a message saying that the Bey must de- 
cide at once between war and peace. The Bey 
succumbed immediately, and not only begged 
for peace, but asked that the Congress should 
convey a Tunisian envoy to the United States. 
This was rather more than Decatur had bargained 
for, particularly as he had to give up a part of his 
quarters to the Tunisian envoy and his suite. 
But having succeeded rather better than he ex- 
pected, Decatur took the party on board and 
returned to the United States, reaching home 
in 1805. 

He was received with praise, admiration, and 
the highest personal and official favor. He was 
given good commands, and a few years after he 
had gone out to the Mediterranean to command 
a little twelve-gun schooner, he again went out 
in command of a splendid squadron, his broad 
pennant flying on the mighty Constitution. He 
was sent to demand reparation from the Dey of 
Algiers for certain injuries to American citizens. 
The American consul went in person to see the 
Dey, who sat in state, looking through the open 
window at the formidable force with which Deca- 

121 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

tur was prepared to enforce his demands. The 
consul began by saying, significantly, that the 
squadron was commanded by Commodore Deca- 
tur. The Dey, gravely combing his beard with 
a diamond comb, said : " I know this Decatur. 
He is the man who burnt the frigate at Tripoli. 
Hum ! Why do the Americans send wild young 
men to treat with old powers ? " Nevertheless, he 
very promptly gave all the satisfaction demanded 
by the "wild young man." 

On the outbreak of hostilities with Great 
Britain in 1811-12, Decatur got the command 
of the United States, — " Old Wagoner," the 
stanch and weatherly frigate in which he had 
made his fii*st cruise with his beloved Somers. 
In her he made the second capture of a frigate 
in that war, Hull having preceded him in the cap- 
ture of the Guerri^re by the Constitution. 

Off Madeira, on the 25th of October, the 
United States sighted the Macedonian,^ a mag- 
nificent thirty-eight-gun frigate, commanded by 
Captain Garden. Decatur and Garden were per- 
sonal friends, and before the war broke out 
had often discussed the relative fighting powers 
of their ships. Decatur's black servant had lis- 

1 As in the case of the fight of the Constitution with the Guer- 
ri^re and the Java, the Macedonian was a lighter ship, with fewer 
men and guns than the Constitution. But the execution done 
in every case was far beyond the difference between the Ameri- 
can ship and her antagonist. 

122 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

tened to these talks as he stood behind his 
master's chair. Captain Garden frequently said, 
" No, my dear Decatur. Your men are brave, 
but not experienced ; and when they meet a 
British ship of equal force, with the best inten- 
tions to do their duty, they will not know how 
to fight." Cuffee remembered this, and as soon 
as it was known on " Old Wagoner " that the 
approaching frigate was the Macedonian, he very 
prudently retired to the lower hold, and hid be- 
hind a hogshead. 

The action began with the greatest spirit on 
both sides, the ships keeping up a furious cannon- 
ade at close quarters, with a heavy sea on and a 
good breeze blowing. The Americans showed 
great superiority in gunnery, and although the 
British fought with a gallantry worthy of Brit- 
ish tars, and their officers nobly encouraged 
them by word and example, in seventeen min- 
utes from the time the first broadside struck the 
Macedonian all was over, and her colors were 
hauled down. She had suffered terribly, more 
than a third of her men being killed and wounded. 
She lost so many men at the guns that the ma- 
rines were called upon to work the batteries. On 
the American ship only twelve men were killed 
and wounded, and the marines during the whole 
battle were drawn up in the waist of the ship, 
with nothing to do. This, however, was much 
more trying than fighting, as they had to stand 

123 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

as if they were on parade, while shot and shell 
screamed a few inches above their heads. The 
men, however, showed the utmost steadiness, and 
acted as well as looked as if they were merely at 
Sunday morning quarters. When the Macedo- 
nian struck, it was plain from the way she was 
cut up that she had made a good and gallant 
defence. As Captain Garden came over the side, 
he offered his sword to Decatur, who refused to 
take it, saying, — 

" I cannot take the sword of a man who has 
so bravely defended his ship." 

The solemn silence of the occasion was broken 
by Cuffee, who, the danger being over, had 
crawled up out of the hold, and appeared upon 
the quarterdeck at that moment, just in time to 
bawl out, — 

" I say, Marse Garden, what you think now 
'bout de way dem 'Mericans fights ! " 

It was several weeks before the United States 
reached home, and during that time Captain 
Garden was Decatur's guest in the cabin. De- 
catur's first letter to his wife after the capture 
of the Macedonian says : " All my pleasure is 
spoiled by poor Garden's sorrow;" for Captain 
Garden knew nothing of the previous capture 
of the Guerridre and of the Java, which fol- 
lowed shortly after, and thought himself to be 
the first and only English captain who had sur- 
rendered his ship. On reaching the United 

124 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

States, Decatur and his odicers received the 
thanks of Congress, and a gold medal for their 
gallant conduct. 

Decatur had looked forward to another active 
cruise in " Old Wagoner," but he soon found him- 
self penned up at New London by a large blockad- 
ing force. Decatur's impetuous nature fretted 
and chafed under this, and in 1814, realizing 
the impossibility of the United States getting to 
sea, he got command of the President, of forty- 
four guns, then lying at New York. Decatur 
took command of her with bright anticipations. 
New York bay was closely watched by British 
cruisers, but Decatur had no fears that he should 
not be able to get out. Accordingly, on a dark and 
stormy night in January, 1814, he picked up his 
anchor, and made for the open sea ; but before 
daylight the pilots had run the frigate aground 
near Sandy Hook, where for an hour and a half 
she lay pounding on the bar. She got off by the 
rising of the tide, but she was so hagged and 
twisted that her back was nearly broken, her 
masts sprung, and her sailing qualities so im- 
paired that she stood but a small chance of escape 
should she fall in with an enemy. Unable by 
reason of the wind to return to New York for 
repairs, the President proceeded to sea, and by 
daylight found herself surrounded by a British 
squadron, consisting of the Majestic, razee, and 
the Endymion, of forty guns, and the Tenedos 

125 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

and Nympli, light frigates. Then began a fight 
as well as a race for life, wliich lasted thirty 
hours. The Endymion got near enough for a 
bloody contest, in which she was badly crippled 
and left behmd, the President making a des- 
perate though lame attempt at flight from her 
antagonists. But it was in vain. The Tenedos 
and Nymph gained on her, and it was soon 
known to all on board that the President was 
a doomed ship. Three of her five lieutenants 
lay dead upon her decks, while among the mor- 
tally wounded was Midshipman Richard Dale, 
son of the famous Commodore Dale, of Revo- 
lutionary fame. The killed and wounded among 
the crew were numerous, and Decatur himself 
received a painful injury. 

His people, who had never seen him except in 
the light of triumph and success, were curious to 
observe how he would stand impending defeat. 
But never was he calmer and cooler. At one 
time, seeing he could handle the Endymion 
alone, he formed the desperate plan of boarding 
her, transferring his people to her, and abandon- 
ing the President. The proposition was received 
with cheers. One of his youngest midshipmen,^ 
a lad of fourteen, said out aloud, in Decatur's 
hearing, — 

" I never can get over the side of that ship, as 
small as I am." 

1 The late Captain Foxliall Parker, 1st. 
126 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

" Oh, yes, you can," replied Decatur, smil- 
ing. " I will pick you up and throw you over 
myself." 

The Endymion, seeing that the President must 
be shortly overpowered by the rest of the squad- 
ron, very sensibly refused to close, and fell out 
of the chase in a helpless condition, every sail 
being shot away from her. 

It was now night, and the President hoped 
to escape in the darkness, which was extreme. 
But about eleven o'clock the Pomone ranged up 
under her lee and poured in a broadside, while 
the Tenedos was closing in on the weather quar- 
ter, and the Majestic was within gunshot astern. 
The President hauled her colors down, and De- 
catur offered his sword to Captain Hayes of the 
Majestic, the ranking officer present. It was 
refused in the same noble words which Decatur 
had used toward Captain Garden : " I cannot 
accept the sword of a man who has so bravely 
defended his ship." 

Decatur was taken to Bermuda, where he was 
received with the highest distinction by the great 
Admiral, Lord Coclirane, and all of the British 
officers. At a splendid dinner given him by the 
British naval officers, some one was tactless 
enough to allude to the capture of the President, 
at which Lord Cochrane promptly said, — 

" The President was mobbed, sir, — simply 
mobbed." 

127 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Decatur and his officers were soon paroled, and 
sent home in a special frigate. Peace was de- 
clared a few days after, and at New London, 
where Decatur was landed, there was a grand 
celebration of the treaty of peace, on the 22d 
of February. The British frigate in which he 
had been returned took part in the celebration, 
and the British and Americans united, as gener- 
ous enemies who have become friends should in 
observing the glorious occasion. 

After the peace, Decatur hoisted his broad pen- 
nant on the Guerri^re,^ and commanded a fine 
squadron in the Mediterranean, where his name 
was always a power. On his return from this 
cruise he was made one of the three navy 
commissioners who were at the head of 
the Navy Department in those days. He had 
amassed a comfortable fortune, and built a fine 
house in Washington, near the White House, 
and had apparently entered upon a long career 
of peace and prosperity; but it was not to 
be. 

It is distressing to chronicle the melancholy 
end of so glorious a life. In those days duel- 
ling was thought justifiable and even obligatory 
on occasions. Decatur lost his life in March, 
1820, near Washington, in a duel with Com- 
modore Barron, concerning some things he had 

1 Not the original ship, captured and blown up by Commodore 
Hull, but one built and named for her. 
128 



STEPHEN DECATUR 

said about Barron many years before. His 
death and the manner of it were universally 
deplored, and when the anxious multitude who 
surrounded his house in Washington was told 
that he was no more, Reuben James, the old 
sailor who had once saved Decatur's life at the 
risk of his own, cried out, " The navy has lost 
its mainmast." 

Decatur was the author of that patriotic say- 
ing which is heard from many American lips 
and is deeply engraved in every American breast : 
*' My country, may she always be right ; but, right 
or wrong, my country ! " 



129 



RICHARD SOMERS 

The name and fame of Richard Somers will 
always be of tender and regretful interest. His 
gentle and lovable character, his quiet, undaunted 
courage, the daring enterprise in which he lost his 
life at the early age of twenty-four, all unite in 
making him one of those young lieroes who are 
never forgotten. As he died young, so must he 
ever remain, a figure of heroic youth, untouched 
by age or time, illumined by a melancholy glory. 
Few circumstances of Somers's early life are 
known. Of a singularly modest and reserved 
nature, he seldom spoke of himself, and beyond 
the bare facts of his boyhood and young manhood, 
little has been gleaned by his various biographers. 
His father was a man of standing and importance, 
and represented his district in New Jersey in the 
Colonial Congress. Somers Point, opposite Cape 
May, was the family property. Richard Somers, 
the youngest of his father's children, was born in 
Philadelphia in 1779, whither his family had 
removed. It is said that his father was a firm 
friend and supporter of General Washington from 
the beginning of his command of the Continen- 
tal army, and that Washington bestowed much 

130 




Richard Somers 



RICHARD SOMERS 

kindly notice upon llic lad, Richard Somers. 
Among Somcrs's possessions was a ring, which he 
valued highly, containing the hair of Washington. 

The boy went to a " dame's school " in Phila- 
delphia with Stephen Decatur ; and there began 
that devoted friendship which lasted through 
Somers's brief life. No two natures were ever 
more contrasted than Somers and Decatur. Som- 
ers was mild in the extreme, of the gentlest man- 
ners, silent, and somewhat reserved. Decatur was 
a young volcano in energy, and pursued all his 
objects in life with a fire and impetuosity almost 
inconceivable. The affection between the two 
seemed to be something deeper and stronger than 
brotherhood, and joined with it was a professional 
rivalry that only such an affection could have 
prevented from becoming enmity. 

Somers was left an orphan when a lad not more 
than twelve years old. He had, however, an uncle 
who was a second father to him, and he inherited 
a respectable property. There is no record of 
Somers having gone to sea before he received 
his appointment as midshipman, of the same date 
as Decatur's, 1798. But a number of circum- 
stances indicate that he was already a capable 
seaman when he got his midshipman's warrant 
to the United States, frigate of forty-four guns. 
He was made master's mate of the hold almost 
immediately on joining the ship, a place given 
the steadiest and readiest of the midshipmen, 

131 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

and it is assumed that he would not have been 
selected had he not known something of his 
profession. 

The United States, which wore the broad 
pennant of Commodore Barry, was engaged in 
active cruising in the West Indies during the hos- 
tilities with France in 1799-1801, but never came 
to close quarters with a ship of her own size during 
the cruise. Somers seems to have won the good- 
will of every one on board, including Commodore 
Barry and the future Commodore Stewart, who 
was the first lieutenant. Somers's mildness seems 
to have been misunderstood for weakness, and on 
hearing of some aspersions upon him, Somers 
determined, in his cool and deliberate manner, to 
show the stuff that was in him. Duelling was 
then a common practice among officers of the 
army and navy, as well as among all those who 
classed themselves as gentlemen. Somers there- 
fore challenged three of his tormentors among 
the midshipmen, and arranged that the three duels 
should be fought one immediately after another. 
Decatur was to be his second in all these affairs, 
and it is a grotesque circumstance that the origin 
of the reflections cast on Somers was from the 
unresenting way with which he put up with Deca- 
tur's chaff. 

In the first two duels Somers received two 
slight wounds which prevented him from stand- 
ing up. Decatur eagerly insisted upon being 

132 



RICHARD SOMERS 

allowed to take Somers's place after the first 
hurt received by Somers ; but Somers refused, 
and exchanged shots for the third time, sitting 
on the ground and held up in the arms of Deca- 
tur. It was the first and last time that liis cour- 
age was ever doubted, and his peace-loving and 
gentle nature was esteemed at its true value ever 
afterward. 

In 1801 tlie United States returned home, 
and Somers's next orders were to the Boston, 
of twenty-eight guns, in which, at the age of 
twenty-two, he found himself in the responsible 
situation of first lieutenant. The Boston was 
commanded by Captain Daniel McNeill, an old 
Revolutionary captain, who was one of the char- 
acters of the old navy. He was a fine seaman 
and a man of resolution and integrity, but not 
very amenable to authority. The Boston was 
ordered to proceed to Europe with Chancellor 
Livingston, who was to arrange terms of peace 
with France. They encountered heavy weather, 
and Captain McNeill carried sail in such a way as 
to astonish his young officers ; but he had in 
his first lieutenant a man almost as well versed 
in seamanship as himself. 

Perhaps no young officer in the navy of that 
day was so well adapted, by his conciliatory and 
amiable manners, to be the first lieutenant of 
such a man as Captain McNeill. The Boston 
had been ordered to report to Commodore Richard 

133 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Dale, who was Captain ]\[cNeiirs senior in rank, 
although much his junior in .age. But Captain 
McNeill seems to have had no notion of putting 
himself under the orders of a man so much 
younger than himself, and although he cruised 
for nearly two years in the Mediterranean, osten- 
sibly hunting for the fiagsliip, he managed by 
the greatest adroitness never to set eyes on 
her. He was meanwhile very actively engaged 
in his duty, and gave convoy to American vessels, 
frightened off the piratical vessels of the Barbary 
powers, and even blockaded Tripoli for a time ; 
but he was always just a little too late or a trifle 
too early to join the flagship. The cruise afforded 
a multitude of amusing anecdotes about this 
doughty but eccentric captain, whose character 
and attainments commanded respect, in spite 
of his oddities. Once, at Malaga, at a grand 
dinner given to Captain McNeill and his officers, 
as also to some Swedish officers of high rank, the 
American captain was seated between two Swed- 
ish admirals. At nine o'clock a midshipman 
entered the room, according to orders, and re- 
ported to Captain McNeill that his boat waited. 
" What did you say ? " asked the captain. The 
midshipman repeated his announcement, Somers 
and the other American officers present waiting 
in agony for what Captain McNeill would say or 
do next. The captain again asked the midship- 
man what he said, bawling out, " These bloody 

134 



RICHARD SOMERS 

Swedes keep up such a chattering I can't hear 
what you saj ! " 

Another one of Captain McNeill's adventures 
was when, lying in a French port, he wished to 
test how quickly his ship could be got under way. 
Three of his own officers were on shore, but three 
French naval officers happened to be on board ; 
so, coolly remarking that he would hold on to the 
French officers to keep up his complement, he put 
to sea. It was several months before the French- 
men could return to France, and meanwhile they 
had been published as deserters. 

At another time, taking a fancy to a regimental 
band which came aboard the Boston in an Italian 
port, he sailed for America with the musicians, 
and it was several years before they were all re- 
turned to Italy. 

The Boston soon after this returned to the 
United States, and the administration of the navy 
winked at Captain McNeill's peccadilloes, in view 
of the actual service he had done during his 
memorable cruise. 

It was at this time that the government deter- 
mined to send a force out, under Commodore 
Preble, to crush Tripoli. Somers got the com- 
mand of the Nautilus, one of the four small 
vessels that were built and sent out, Stewart 
getting another, and Decatur a third. Somers 
was now in his twenty-fifth year, handsome, well 
made, and his naturally dark skin still darker from 

135 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

wind and sun. His manners were polished, and 
he was as prepossessing, in his quiet way, as the 
dashing Decatur. Somers's black eyes were notice- 
ably melancholy, and after his untimely death 
those who loved him fancied they had always 
seen in his countenance some premonition of his 
doom. 

The officers who were to command these lit- 
tle vessels superintended their building, as there 
were then no regular navy-yards in the country. 
The Nautilus, under Somers's command, was the 
first to sail, and the first to arrive at Gibraltar, 
in July, 1803. She was a beautiful little schooner, 
of twelve guns, with a crew of nearly a hundred 
men. She was, however, very small to cross the 
Atlantic, and several times during the voyage 
Somers was hailed and offered assistance by 
friendly shipmasters, who thought the gallant 
little vessel must have been blown out of her 
course. 

Somers was one of the boy captains whose 
youth so disgusted Commodore Preble when he 
met them first on their arrival at Gibraltar. But 
the commodore found in Somers, as early as 
with any, the stuff of which these young officers 
were made. Somers was very actively engaged 
in the labors and cruises which occupied the 
winter of 1803-4, preparing to attack Tripoli 
in the summer. He sympathized ardently with 
Decatur in the splendid exploit of the destruction 

136 



RICHARD SOMERS 

of the Philadelphia. He was anxious to assist 
him with the Nautilus, but Stewart's superior 
rank and larger command entitled him to support 
Decatur, which he did in the Siren. Decatur's 
success inspired every young captain in the 
squadron with a noble desire to equal it, and 
none more than the quiet and self-contained 
Somers. 

The preparations for the bombardment of 
Tripoli continued, and on the 3d of August the 
first attack took place. Commodore Preble gave 
the command of the right division of gun-ves- 
sels to Somers, and the left to Decatur. Somers 
was supposed to be Decatur's senior at the time, 
but the post-captain's commission which the 
Congress had given Decatur as a reward for the 
destruction of the Philadelphia was then on its 
way, and arrived a few days after ; while the 
same ship brought Somers's promotion to a mas- 
ter commandant. 

The story of those splendid attacks has been 
told in the biographies of Preble and Decatur.^ On 
the memorable 3d of August, when the captives of 
the Philadelphia in the Bashaw's dungeons first 
heard from the guns of the squadron the thun- 
dering demand for the release of the prisoners, 
Somers, like Decatur, performed prodigies of 
valor. The harbor of Tripoli is crossed by a 
great reef, above the water, and on which forts and 

1 See the biography of Decatur. 
137 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

batteries were mounted. At the western end is 
a narrow opening of about two hundred yards, 
while within the reef the rocks and shoals were so 
numerous and so difficult that the best seaman- 
ship and the greatest courage were necessary for 
an attacking enemy. The guns from the forts 
and ships nearer the town, too, could be concen- 
trated on any small craft which passed through 
this western passage. These desperate risks did 
not deter Somers and Decatur, who went inside 
and fell upon the Tripolitan gun-vessels with the 
fury of fiends. On the 3d of August, while Decatur 
was engaged in his terrible encounter with the 
Tripolitan, Somers in a single small gun-vessel 
held at bay five gun-vessels, each larger than his 
own, and fought with savage determination. 
The wind was driving him straight on the rocks, 
and he had to keep backing his sweeps to save 
himself from destruction, while fighting like a 
lion. The Constitution, seeing his critical posi- 
tion, came to his support, and, opening her batter- 
ies on the Tripolitans, succeeded in driving them 
still farther within the reefs, while Somers brought 
his gallant little gun-vessel out in triumph. 

Four of these dashing attacks were made, in 
every one of which Somers and Decatur com- 
manded the two boat divisions. Both had many 
narrow escapes. Once, while Somers was lean- 
ing against the flagstaff of his little vessel, as 
she was on her way to attack, he saw a rou^d 

138 



RrCIlARD SOMERS 

shot coming. lie jumped iiside, and the next 
moment the flagstaff was shattered just at the 
pouit where his head had rested. His knowledge 
of the interior of the harbor, where the Tripoli- 
tans had a large number of vessels at anchor, in- 
spired him with the design of leading a forlorn 
hope, — to strike one great blow, and, if necessary, 
to die for his country the next moment. At 
last he got Commodore Preble's permission to 
carry out the daring attempt, which, heroic in its 
conception, yet makes one of the saddest pages 
in the history of the American navy. 

The plan was to fit up as a fire-ship, or " infer- 
nal," the ketch Intrepid, in which Decatur had 
won immortality in the same harbor, take it 
in, and explode it among the Tripolitan fleet. 
Somers earnestly begged Commodore Preble for 
the honor of leading this desperate expedition, 
and the commodore at last agreed. It would be 
necessary to pour one hundred barrels of gun- 
powder into the hold of the ketch in order to 
make it effective as a fire-ship, and before con- 
senting to this, the Commodore warned Somers 
that so much powder must not be allowed to fall 
into the hands of the Tripolitans. It was dur- 
ing the Napoleonic wars, powder was in great 
demand, and the Tripolitans were supposed to be 
short of it. After this interview Somers ex- 
pressed the determination to be blown up rather 
than to be captured. 

139 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

The details of the attack were worked out most 
carefully. Besides the powder, the Intrepid was 
to carry a large stock of splintered wood ; and 
about two hundred shells, with their fuses pre- 
pared, were laid on her decks, to add their horrors 
to the explosion. The brave adventurers had two 
chances for their lives, in having two boats in 
which to escape from the ketch. One of them 
was a very fast four-oared boat from Somers's 
own vessel, the Nautilus, and the other was 
a six-oared cutter from the Constitution. Somers 
was to be in his own boat, while Lieutenant 
Henry Wadsworth ^ commanded the Constitu- 
tion's cutter. Ten sailors were to be taken along 
making twelve persons in all ; but the number 
was increased to thirteen by a little midshipman, 
Joseph Israel, who smuggled himself into the 
Constitution's boat. 

Somers had consulted at every step his bosom 
friend Decatur, and Charles Stewart, with whom 
he had begun his naval life in " Old Wagoner." 
Decatur, in his own vessel, the Argus, and Lieu- 
tenant-Commandant Smith, of the Vixen, and 
Somers's vessel, the Nautilus, under the command 
of his first lieutenant, Washington Reed, were to 
support the dauntless party in the boats as far as 
possible. 

Everything being ready, on the day after the 

1 Lieutenant Wadsworth was the uncle of Longfellow, and the 
poet was named for this gallant gentleman and brave sailor. 
140 



RICHARD SOMERS 

desperate boat attack of the 3d of September, in 
the afternoon, Somers appeared on the deck of 
his vessel, and, having the crew piped up, ad- 
dressed them, telling frankly the hazardous na- 
ture of the attempt he was to make, and calling 
for four volunteers who would go with him to 
advance one step ahead of the line. For answer, 
every man and boy on the Nautilus advanced 
two steps. This brave spirit was deeply gratify- 
ing to Somers, and he was forced to make a 
selection. He chose four of his best seamen, — 
James Simms, Thomas Tompline, James Harris, 
and William Keith. 

On the Constitution the same spirit was shown, 
and Lieutenant Wadsworth selected the six men 
he needed from the hundreds who were eager to 
go. The Constitution's sailors were William 
Harrison, Robert Clark, Hugh McCormick, Jacob 
Williams, Peter Renner, and Isaac Downes. The 
names of these humble men deserve to be re- 
corded, for each one was worthy to do, to dare, 
and to die with his officers, — Somers, Wads- 
worth, and Israel. 

When the last preparations were made, on 
the afternoon of September 4, 1804, and the 
men were assembled on the Nautilus's deck, with 
the boats lowered, Somers addressed the ten 
sailors. He told them that he wanted no man 
with him who would not rather be blown up than 
surrender to the Tripolitans. The men responded 

141 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

with a cheer ; and it was found that eacli one had 
privately asked Somers for the dangerous honor 
of applying the match when the time for the 
explosion came. They then said good-bye to 
their shipmates, and indicated what they wished 
done with their belongings if they should never 
return. Somers was accompanied to the In- 
trepid by Decatur and Stewart, who remained 
with him until the dusk of the September evening 
warned them that the solemn hour had come. 
On parting from them, Somers, who was as tran- 
quil as ever, took a ring from his finger, and, 
breaking it in three parts, gave one piece to 
Decatur, one to Stewart, and kept the third- 
The last man over the Intrepid's side was Lieu- 
tenant Reed, who, as Somers's first lieutenant, 
was to command the Nautilus. 

The night had fallen when the Constitution's 
boat joined the ketch, and in it was found the 
little fifteen-year-old midshipman, Israel, who had 
pleaded to go, and, being refused, had smuggled 
himself into the boat. There was then no way of 
getting rid of him, and, admiring his bold deter- 
mination, Somers welcomed him on the ketch. 
There was a light blue haze on the water, and 
the night was murky as the " infernal " stole 
upon her way. She entered the harbor silently, 
while outside, in the offing, the Nautilus, the Ar- 
gus, and the Vixen stood in as close as they 
dared. Presently, in the darkness, the Siren was 

142 



RICHARD SOMERS 

observed to flit past them. Stewart, in his anxiety 
for Somers, had implored Commodore Preble to 
let him be near the scene of action, and the com- 
modore had consented. 

The Siren ventured farther into the offing 
than the other vessels, and Stewart and his offi- 
cers, like every officer and man on all of the 
ships, was intent upon the black shadow of the 
fire-ship, as she crept in among the rocks. She 
was soon discovered, in spite of the darkness, and 
a few grape-shot were thrown at her. Stewart 
was standing in the Siren's gangway, with one 
of his lieutenants, anxiously watching through 
his night-glass the progress of the Intrepid, 
when the officer cried, " Look ! see the light ! *' 
A light, like a lantern, was seen to flash across 
the Intrepid's deck. The next moment a roar 
as if worlds were crashing together shook the 
castle and forts, and rocked the ships in the 
offing; a red glare hideously illumined the sea 
and sky ; the masts and sails of the ketch rose up 
in the burning air for a moment, then fell into 
the fire-lit waves, and all was over. A fright- 
ful and unearthly silence and darkness succeeded. 
The brigs and schooners cruised about, their 
officers and men in anguish over the fate of 
their brave companions. The Constitution fired 
minute-guns all night, so that if any survived that 
awful explosion they might know they were not 
forgotten. When sunrise came, thirteen black- 

143 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

ened bodies floated ashore at Tripoli. They were 
so disfigured that the officers could only be told 
from the men by the softness of their hands. 
Bainbridge and his officers were taken from their 
captivity to identify the remains of the thirteen 
brave souls who had given life itself to hasten the 
release of the Philadelphia's gallant company. 
Not the slightest damage was done to the Tri- 
politan ships or forts, or to the town itself. 

The ten sailors were buried together near the 
beach, while the three officers were laid in the same 
grave on a plain a little southward of the castle. 
Whether Somers blew the ketch up, in his concep- 
tion of his duty, or whether the powder was acci- 
dentally ignited, can never be ascertained. All 
that is known, however, is that he did his duty, 
as did every officer and man lost in that perilous 
attempt. Of each of them may be said as is 
written after the name of the little midshipman, 
Israel, in the records of the navy, " Died, with 
honor, in the service, September 4, 1804." 

His country honored Somers by naming for 
him a beautiful little brig; but like him it was 
doomed to misfortune. One of the most terrible 
tragedies that ever occurred in the American 
navy took place upon the deck of the Somers, 
and it was afterward lost at sea, going down, as 
Somers did, in the darkness and silence of an 
unfathomed mystery. 



144 




Isaac Hull 



ISAAC HULL. 

The American navy has produced many men 
great in the handling of sailing-ships ; but no 
more capable seaman ever trod the quarter-deck 
than Isaac Hull. In all of his achievements his 
faculty of handling his vessel, whether great or 
small, to the utmost possible advantage, was the 
most considerable factor in his success ; and his 
tremendous popularity with seamen, who were 
always eager to ship with him, came from their 
conviction that in time of stress and danger they 
had a born sailor to look out for them. 

Hull was the son of a Revolutionary officer, 
and was born at Derby, Massachusetts, in March, 
1775, shortly before the affairs at Lexington and 
Concord. His father was taken prisoner and 
died on one of the Jersey prison ships, and Isaac 
was adopted by an uncle, General Hull. The 
means and station of the Hull family were such 
that a liberal education was within the lad's 
reach, and he was destined for a course at Yale 
College. But he early developed a passion for 
the sea ; and his uncle, seeing the boy's determined 
bent, concluded to let him carry it out. The Con- 
tinental navy had passed out of existence, and the 

10 145 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

reorganization did not take place until 1797-98, 
so that a naval career was not open to him at 
the start. General Hull, however, did the next 
best thing possible for the boy, by sending him to 
sea in a fine ship owned by a friend of the Hull 
family. Isaac proved himself capable and indus- 
trious from the start, and by the time he reached 
his twenty-first birthday was in command of a 
small vessel. The desire to hold a commission 
in the regular navy possessed him, and in March, 
1798, he got a fourth lieutenant's commission, 
which was dated on his twenty-third birth- 
day. 

His first cruise was made in the ship in which 
he was afterward to win such splendid renown, 
— the Constitution. She was then commanded 
by Captain Samuel Nicholson. He remained in 
her for more than two years, and thus became 
thoroughly familiar with the great frigate, — a 
knowledge he was eventually to put to good use. 
In 1800 she was the flagship of Commodore Talbot, 
in the West Indies, and Hull was her first lieu- 
tenant. Commodore Talbot and the captain of a 
British frigate on that station were friends, and the 
American and British captains would often discuss 
the sailing qualities of their respective frigates, 
the British ship being a good sailer as well as 
the Constitution. At last a sailing-match was 
agreed upon, the captains wagering a cask of 
wine on the result. The two frigates started with 

146 



ISAAC HULL 

a fresh breeze at sunrise, and the contest was to 
last until the sunset gun was fired. Hull sailed 
the Constitution, and his seamanship on that 
day of friendly rivalry was scarcely inferior to 
that which he displayed when Admiral Broke's 
squadron of five ships was hounding him on an 
August day, twelve years after. The Constitu- 
tion could easily leg it at an eleven-knot gait, 
with a tolerable breeze, and was almost unap- 
proachable on a wind ; but that day, under Hull's 
skilful handling, she outdid herself, and beat her 
opponent by several miles. Hull kept the crew 
on deck the livelong day, and the seamanlike 
manner in which he beat the English frigate, 
which was also remarkably well sailed, won the 
admiration even of his opponents. Hull was too 
great a seaman himself to underrate either British 
skill or pluck, and many years after it is told of 
him that, speaking with a very steady old boat- 
swain, the man remarked, " The British, sir, are 
hard fellows on salt water." 

"' I knovf that, — they are a hard set of fellows, 
sure enough," was Hull's emphatic reply. 

Hull saw no very brilliant service during the 
hostilities with France in 1799-1800, but he cut 
out a French letter-of-marque in the harbor of 
Port Platte, Hayti, in a very handsome manner. 
He armed a small vessel, the Sally, with men 
from the Constitution, ran into the harbor in 
broad daylight, landed a company of marines, 

147 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

who spiked the guns of the fort and carried off 
the French letter-of-marque in fine style. 

In 1802 Hull went to the Adams, of twenty- 
eight guns, as her first lieutenant. The Adams 
was one of the fastest frigates that ever floated, 
and Hull was the man to get the most out of her. 
She was sent to the Mediterranean at the begin- 
ning of the Tripolitan troubles, and in her patrol 
of the Straits of Gibraltar in all weathers, and 
her blockade of Tripoli in the dangerous winter 
season, her first lieutenant splendidly sustained 
the reputation he had brought from the Consti- 
tution with him, as one of the ablest seamen in 
the navy. He would carry more sail than any 
other lieutenant in the squadron would have 
carried, and would make sail when most ships 
scarcely showed a rag of canvas. 

In 1803 he got his first command, the little 
schooner Enterprise, which he exchanged, after 
a short time, with Decatur, who brought out from 
America the Argus, a handsome sixteen-gun brig, 
lately off the stocks. In the Argus he took an 
active part in the bombardment of Tripoli, and 
manifested his usual steadiness and coolness. 
Commodore Preble, wishing to examine the har- 
bor as closely as practicable during the bombard- 
ment, trusted to Hull's seamanship to get him 
the best view possible, and reconnoitred one night 
in the Argus. It came near being the end of the 
vessel and all on board, by one of those acci- 

148 



ISAAC HULL 

dents against which skill and courage avail noth- 
ing. A heavy shot struck the brig's bottom, and 
raked it for several feet, ripping the plank out as 
it went. Had it gone an inch deeper, the ship's 
bottom would have been out ; but the gallant brig 
and her brave company were saved for great ser- 
vices to their country. 

After the reduction of the Barbary powers Hull 
returned home, and in 1806 he reached the rank 
of post-captain. He was then thirty-one years 
old, short and stocky, but military in his bearing, 
prompt and decided in his manner, kind to his 
men, but a firm disciplinarian. He was singularly 
chivalrous to women, and treated the humblest 
woman with the highest respect. 

In 1811 Hull got the Constitution, and with 
her. Lieutenant, afterward Commodore, Charles 
Morris, a lieutenant worthy of such a captain. 
In the celebrated chase of the Constitution the 
following year, scarcely less praise is due to 
Morris, then her first lieutenant, than to Hull. 

The Constitution's first duty was to take a 
large amount of specie to Holland, in payment of 
interest on a debt due by the United States. From 
thence she proceeded to Portsmouth, England. 

By that time it was known that war was immi- 
nent, and Hull kept his ship prepared for action 
at a moment's notice. It seemed at one time 
as if the Constitution would fire the first gun of 
the conflict in an English port. The Havana, 

149 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

frigate, lay close to the Constitution, and one 
night a man from the American frigate jumped 
overboard and swam to the Havana, where he 
was taken aboard. Next morning Hull sent a 
boat with Morris, to ask the man's surrender. 
The British captain declined to give him up, say- 
ing that the man swore he was a British subject. 
As the British navy made laws for the navies of 
the world in those days, the Americans had to 
submit with a very bad grace. But compensation 
was at hand. A man from the Havana, see- 
ing the turn of affairs, jumped overboard and 
swam to the Constitution. He was welcomed on 
board, one may be sure, and when the Havana's 
lieutenant sent after him, Hull coolly announced 
that the man said he was an American citizen, 
and therefore would not be given up. The British 
captain had to be satisfied with this answer. But 
there was some expectation that an attempt would 
be made to seize the man by force. Meanwhile 
Hull concluded to change his berth, the Ha- 
vana and her consort being a little too near ; so 
he picked up his anchor, and dropped down to 
leeward a mile or two. The Havana promptly 
followed him. Hull then thought it likely that 
he would be attacked before morning, and made 
his preparations accordingly. The ship was 
cleared for action, the cabin torn out of the way, 
the battle lanterns lighted, and the men sent to 
their quarters at the tap of the drum. Hull, 

150 



ISAAC HULL 

full of fire and determination, said to the 
men, — 

" My lads, are you ready for a fight ? I don't 
know but what this frigate is after us. Are you 
ready for her ? " 

The reply was a rousing American cheer. 
Even some men who were in irons joined in the 
cheering, and contrived to get a message to the 
captain asking to be released during the time of 
the expected fight, that they might do their duty. 
This was done, and amid the greatest enthusiasm 
the guns were cast loose. It was noted that the men 
took hold of the gun tackles as if they meant to 
jerk the guns through the ship's side. Lieutenant 
Morris, passing along the batteries, told the men 
that if the ship had to fight, it would be in their 
quarrel, and he hoped they would give a good 
account of themselves. The reply of these gal- 
lant tars was, " Let the quarterdeck look out for 
the colors, and we will look out for the guns." 

Some hours having passed, with the Consti- 
tution plainly ready for a fight, without any 
demonstration from the British frigate, Hull de- 
termined to lift his anchor and sail for France. 
The men responded with a loud groan to the 
boatswain's call to man the capstan bars, and, 
sailor-like, were acutely disappointed that they 
got off without a chance to show what the ship 
could do. 

Hull returned to the United States, and in 

151 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

June, 1812, war was declared. The Constitu- 
tion was at Annapolis, where she had been newly 
coppered, and where a sloop-of-war was also being 
fitted out. A report got about, among the Con- 
stitution's crew, that men were to be drafted from 
her to the sloop-of-war. This created great dis- 
satisfaction. The men, nearly all native-born 
Americans, although new to the ship, were proud 
of her, and had a superstitious faith in her good 
fortune and were devoted to their captain. Their 
complaints became almost mutinous, when Hull 
appeared among them and assured them that not 
a man should be tal^en out of the ship. This 
pacified them, and on the 14th of July, 1812, 
they sailed for New York, to join Commodore 
Rodgers's squadron. About four o'clock on the 
morning of July 19th, the cry rang through the 
ship that the American squadron was sighted ; 
but as day broke, it was found that the Constitu- 
tion was almost surrounded by a British squadron 
under Admiral Broke, one of the finest seamen 
in the British navy. It consisted of the Africa, 
sixty -four ; the frigates Shannon and Guerriere, 
of thirty-eight guns each (with the last the Con- 
stitution was to have it out, yardarm to yardarm, 
that day montli) ; the light frigates Belvidera and 
Eolus ; and two small vessels. By sunrise it fell 
almost calm, and it seemed as if the glorious 
frigate would have to lie where she was, to be 
eaten up by her enemies as soon as the wind rose. 

152 



ISAAC HULL 

But Hull and Morris were men of resource, and 
while fully prepared to go down fighting, if neces- 
sary, they knew a way of getting off even without 
a wind. All the spare hawsers in the ship were 
bent together, and to a kedge anchor which was 
put in a boat, sent ahead half a mile, and let go. 
The crew, at a signal, clapped on, and walked 
away with the ship. Before she lost the impetus 
gained by rousing on the one kedge, another one 
was carried ahead and let go ; and so she pro- 
gressed at the rate of about three knots an hour. 
At first the British were amazed to see her trot- 
ting oif without a wind ; but they soon found out 
what was going on, and put all the available boats 
in the squadron to towing the Shannon after the 
Constitution. The Shannon, however, could not 
make much headway, as Hull had mounted stern- 
chasers in the cabin, and fired on the British boats 
whenever they came within range. 

The Shannon, however, was coming up on the 
starboard, while the other ships were towing, 
kedging, and sending their boats ahead with 
sweeps, to surround the gallant frigate. The 
Guerriere, too, was nearing her on the port 
quarter, and men less resourceful than Hull and 
his officers would have despaired of escape. But 
just then a light breeze struck the ship, the sails 
were trimmed, and the ship came by the wind 
beautifully. This brought the Guerriere nearly 
within gunshot, and she roared out her broadside ; 

153 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

but the Constitution's people continued hoisting 
up their boats with as much coohiess and steadi- 
ness as if the cannonade were no more than bird- 
shot. For an hour the Constitution legged it at 
a lively rate ; but about ten o'clock it fell calm, 
and the wearisome and tedious method of kedging 
was again resorted to. The British put nearly all 
their boats on the Shannon, but in spite of num- 
bers the American frigate managed to keep just 
out of gunshot. 

Every device known to seamanship was used to 
increase the distance between the frigate and her 
pursuers. Her sails were wet down fore and aft, 
several thousand gallons of water were pumped 
out of her, the boat's falls were kept in hand to 
run the boats up, and every cat's paw was taken 
advantage of with the finest possible seamanship. 
Yet so hopeless did her chances seem that Admiral 
Broke had a prize crew told off, to take her into 
Halifax ! Neither Hull nor his officers or men 
contemplated for a moment giving up the frigate. 
Hull knew his ship ; he had a remarkably capable 
set of officers, and his ship was so well manned 
by intelligent Americans that it was said in a 
very little while after they had enlisted the crew 
could have sailed and fought the ship without 
their officers. 

About two o'clock the Belvidera got within 
range and began to throw her broadside ; but Hull, 
after returning a few shot, devoted himself strictly 

154 



ISAAC HULL 

to keeping his ship away from her enemies. All 
day the British ships used every method that 
skill could devise to get at the Constitution, but 
were able neither to overhaul her nor to close 
with her. At eleven o'clock at night a breeze 
sprang up which lasted for an hour, when it died 
away. During that night neither the Constitu- 
tion nor her pursuers kedged, the crews on all 
the ships being too exhausted; but no officer 
or man on the Constitution went below. The 
officers lay down at their stations, and the sail- 
ors slept at their guns, with their rammers and 
sponges at their sides. 

With daylight came wind enough to keep the 
ships moving, and at sunrise the sight was sin- 
gularly beautiful. The summer sea was faintly 
rippled by a long, soft swell, and the sun shone 
with unclouded splendor. The five pursuing ships, 
as well as the Constitution, were clouds of can- 
vas, from rail to truck, and all six were on the 
same tack. Including the six men-of-war, eleven 
sail were in sight. The British squadron had 
been joined by the Nautilus, brig, and the rest 
were merchantmen. During the morning an 
American merchant ship was observed approach- 
ing. The Constitution, seeing the ship was un- 
aware of her danger, hoisted an English ensign 
and fired a gun at her, — which induced her to 
run away from her supposed enemy. 

All day the chase continued ; but the Con- 

155 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

stitation showed a clean pair of heels, and was 
slowly, though steadily, widening the distance 
between herself and her pursuers. In the after- 
noon a heavy squall with rain came up. The 
Constitution took in her sails, which induced the 
British ships to do the same. But as soon as she 
was hid by the curtain of falling rain, she made 
sail upon her stout masts, that carried her along 
at a rattling gait. In about an hour the weather 
cleared, when it was seen that the Belvidera, 
the nearest vessel, was far astern, the others 
were more distant still, the Africa being hull 
down. The chase was still kept up during the 
whole of that night, but at daylight next morning 
the British ships were almost out of sight, and 
about eight o'clock they hauled their wind and 
gave up the contest. 

Not only had the noble frigate escaped from her 
enemies, but she had done so without losing a 
gun, an anchor, or a boat. She was ready at any 
moment of the chase to go into action, and the 
steadiness, coolness, and precision of her mana3u- 
vres were never surpassed. This chase is one of 
the glories of the American navy, — not merely be- 
cause of the escape itself, but by reason of the sea- 
manlike manner in which it was accomplished. 

Shortly after, the Constitution ran the block- 
ade and got into Boston, to hear the news 
that she had been captured ! 

The delight of the people at the escape of their 

156 



ISAAC HULL 

favorite frigate was iinboLiiided. Hull was hailed 
as a hero ; but with characteristic modesty he 
ascribed most of the credit of his escape to his 
officers and crew, both in his official report and 
a published card. 

Having had an intimation, however, that it 
was in contemplation to give the ship to Bain- 
bridge, in virtue of his superior rank, and with- 
out waiting for orders, which might be just what 
he did not want, Hull sailed eastward as soon as 
he had watered and victualled his ship. On the 
afternoon of the 19th of August, just one month 
to a day after he had first been chased by the 
Guerri^re, he ran across her again, and both 
ships prepared to fight it out, with the greatest 
spirit imaginable. 

Captain Dacres, of the Guerriere, and Hull 
were personal friends, as many of the American 
and British captains were in those days, and there 
was a standing bet of a hat between them on the 
result in case their two ships ever came to ex- 
changing broadsides. The Guerriere was an ex- 
tremely fine French-built frigate, carrying fifty 
guns, — the Constitution carried fifty-four and 
her broadside was much the heavier. In men, 
the Constitution had also the advantage of the 
British ship, but the damage inflicted by the 
Constitution was far in excess of her superiority 
in men and metal. On the Guerri^re's great 
mainsail was inscribed in huge red letters, 

157 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

" All who meet me have a care, 
I am England's Guerrifere." 

The two ships were looking for each other, 
when on the 19th of August, about ten o'clock, 
a sail being reported off the port bow, a midship- 
man was sent aloft to try and make her out. All 
hands were hoping the stranger was the Guer- 
riere, when Hull called out witii animation, — 

" What do you think she is ? " 

" She 's a great vessel, sir. Tremendous sails." 

" Never mind," coolly replied Hull, turning to 
the boatswain. " Mr. Adams, call all hands. 
Make sail for her." 

Before the boatswain's pipe was heard, the men 
came tumbling up on deck, even the sick turning 
out of their berths. Hull, in his official report of 
the battle, says : " From the smallest boy in the 
ship up to the oldest seaman, not a look of fear 
was seen. They went into action giving three 
cheers, and requesting to be laid alongside the 
enemy." When the call to quarters was heard 
through the ship, the men went to the guns 
dancing. Sail was crowded on, and soon it was 
seen that the stranger was the Guerriere. She 
had hauled her wind, and lay with her topsails 
aback, gallantly waiting for her enemy. Her 
officers and crew prepared to meet the Americans 
with the spirit of British seamen. There were 
ten Americans in the crew who came to Captain 
Dacres and told him they could not fight against 

158 



ISAAC HULL 

their own country. The captain magnanimously 
told them to go below, and assist in the cockpit 
with the wounded. 

As soon as the Constitution got within range, 
the Guerridre let fly her batteries, firing the star- 
board guns, then wearing and giving the Consti- 
tution her port guns. The Constitution came 
on, yawing at intervals to prevent being raked, 
and occasionally firing one of her bow guns. 
Three times Lieutenant Morris asked permission 
to fire a broadside, and each time Hull answered, 
"Not yet." At last, when within fifty yards of 
the Guerriere, the moment had come. Hull 
spoke a few stirring words to his people. 

" Men ! " he said, " now do your duty. Your 
officers cannot have entire command over you now. 
Each man must do all in his power for his country. 
No firing at random. Let every man look well to 
his aim. Sailing-master, lay her alongside." 

The Constitution came up into the wind in 
gallant style, and as she fell off a little, the 
Guerriere, an antagonist worthy of the great 
frigate, ranged alongside. The Constitution let 
fly every gun in her starboard batteries at short 
range, and the shock was like an earthquake. 
Every timber in the frigate trembled like a leaf. 
When the smoke cleared away, it was seen that 
this terrific broadside had made destruction on the 
British ship. Her mizzen-mast had gone by the 
board, her mainyard had been shot from the slings, 

159 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

and a momentary confusion reigned on her decks. 
The effect of their first broadside was so en- 
couraging to the Americans that before firing 
another gun they gave three thundering cheers. 
The English officers spol^e afterward of the ex- 
tra ordinary enthusiasm of the Americans, which 
was a part of the fury of their attack. 

When the cheers had subsided, Hull called out, 
" My lads, you have made a brig of that craft : " 
to which the sailors shouted back, "We'll make 
a sloop of her soon, sir ; " and in a little while 
the foremast went by the board. The Guer- 
riere then swung round, and, being almost un- 
manageable, got into a terrible position for raking. 
Her officers and men fought with undiminished 
valor, and when the ensign was shot away, an- 
other one was nailed to the stump of the mizzen- 
mast. On the Constitution the halyards were 
shot away, and the flag became entangled in the 
splinters of a shattered yard. A sailor sprang aloft 
and nailed it to the mast, and both ships continued 
the action without thought of surrender. 

The Guerriere, however, was plainly getting 
the worst of it. Most of her fire was directed to 
the masts and spars of the Constitution, while 
several shot that struck the frigate's hull re- 
bounded into the water. At this the sailors 
cheered. 

" Huzza ! " they cried. " Her sides are made 
of iron ! Huzza for Old ' Ironsides ' ! " 

160 



ISAAC HULL 

Then some one on the Constitution, pointing 
to the captain, cried, — 

" Hull her, men ! Hull her!" 

The sailors, catching the pun, roared out, — 

« Hull her ! Hull her ! Yes, we '11 hull her ! " 

Hull, who had grown very stout, and was short 
withal, was standing on an ammunition box, while 
shot flew thick and fast around him. Leaning 
over to give an order, his knee breeches, which 
were very tight, burst from knee to hip. The 
men shouted with laughter ; but it was no time to 
repair such damages, and Hull finished the battle 
with his trousers hanging in rags. 

It was not to last long. The mainmast soon 
followed the other masts, and in thirty minutes 
from the time the Constitution's first broad- 
side had been fired, the Guerriere lay, a helpless 
hulk, rolling in the trough of the sea, that washed 
into her shattered main-deck ports. 

Her masts and spars having gone by the board, 
she swung round, so that she lay perfectly help- 
less, while every gun in the Constitution raked her. 
The men could see the whites of each other's eyes, 
and the gleam of the teeth as they fought. Cap- 
tain Dacres had been badly wounded, while stand- 
ing in the hammock nettings cheering his men 
on, a vast number of officers and men killed and 
wounded, and the Guerri^re's decks ran with blood. 
But even in these dreadful circumstances not a 
man or boy on the British ship faltered ; and 

11 161 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

when it was plain to every eye that resistance was 
over for the proud Guerriere, one of her powder 
boys was heard to shout to another confidently, — 

" Work away there ! Huzza ! She '11 soon be 
ours ! " 

Her captain saw that it was time to stop the 
useless slaughter, and a gun was fired to lee- 
ward, which signified surrender. But her men 
refused to haul down the jack they had nailed to 
the stump of the mizzen-mast, and not until Cap- 
tain Dacres stepped into the Constitution's boat 
did the brave men and boys of the Guerridre 
acknowledge themselves beaten. It was, indeed, 
an idea almost impossible for them to grasp, 
that a crack British frigate should have been 
whipped in fair fight by an American ; but it is 
easily understood when it is remembered that they 
were men of the same stock, — for the Constitution 
was wholly manned by native-born Americans, who 
came justly by that genius for fighting at sea which 
is the common heritage of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

As Captain Dacres came over the side of the 
Constitution, Hull met him with the cordiality 
of a friend and shipmate instead of the air of a 
conqueror. He gave the British captain a hand, 
saying, with the greatest friendliness,— 

"' Dacres, I see you are hurt. Let me help you." 

As soon as Captain Dacres reached the Con- 
stitution's deck, he attempted to hand his sword 
to Hull, who said, — 

162 



ISAAC HULL 

" No, no, I cannot take the sword of a man who 
knows so well how to use it ; but — i '11 thank you 
for that hat ! " 

The business of transferring the prisoners then 
began. It was seen at once there was no hope of 
saving the Guerriere, and it was determined to 
remove everything of value and then blow her up. 
The damages to the Constitution were repaired 
in an hour. She had lost seven men killed and 
seven wounded. The Guerriere had lost seventy- 
nine in killed and wounded. 

The Constitution lay by the Guerriere all night, 
and the Americans worked like Trojans to save 
the belongings of the prisoners. Hull asked 
Captain D acres if everything of value had been 
sent him oat of the Guerriere's cabin. Captain 
Dacres replied that a Bible, his wife's gift, had 
been left behind. Hull immediately sent a boat 
after it. Captain Dacres, in his report to the 
Admiralty, said : " I feel it my duty to state that 
tlie conduct of Captain Hull and his officers to 
our men has been that of a brave enemy, the 
greatest care being taken to prevent our men 
losing the smallest trifle, and the greatest atten- 
tion being paid to the wounded." 

After working all night the morning of the 
20th of August saw the brave but unfortunate 
Guerriere made ready for her ocean grave. A 
slow match was applied to her magazine, and 
the Constitution bore away. About three miles 

163 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

off she hove to, while her officers and men, to- 
gether with those of the doomed frigate, waited 
breathlessly for the explosion. As the fire gained 
headway, a dense volume of smoke formed over 
her. Some of her guns had been left shotted, and 
as the fire reached them, they began to go off, 
their sullen boom over the sea sounding like the 
death-knell of the gallant ship. Presently the 
flames reached the magazine. Streams of light, 
and a roar that seemed to shake the deep, fol- 
lowed ; a mass of wreckage flew skyward ; the 
Guerriere was no more. 

There was great uneasiness felt on board the 
Constitution in regard to the large number of 
prisoners she carried. There were not enough 
handcuffs in the ship for the whole British crew, 
and the Americans felt a manly unwillingness to 
handcuff any of the men who had fought them so 
bravely. But it was noted that from the start 
the prisoners and their captors behaved well, the 
American and British sailors sitting around the 
fok'sle together, spinning yarns, exchanging to- 
bacco, and chumming quite amicably. 

Hull made for Boston, and on his arrival there 
was greeted witli the wildest enthusiasm. The 
people were beside themselves with joy. Before 
this a British ship had been deemed invincible, 
and the knowledge that one of these great ships, 
with a captain and crew worthy of her, had struck 
to an American captain who had never before 
164 



ISAAC HULL 

handled a frigate in action, was gratifying to the 
national pride. Hull, to his great discomfiture, 
was seized, as he stepped upon the dock, and car- 
ried on the shoulders of his admirers to his des- 
tination. A grand banquet was given to him and 
his officers in Faneuil Hall. Congress had a 
medal struck in his honor, and gave swords to 
the officers and a handsome sum in prize money 
to the crew. So great was Hull's popularity that 
the commissioners of the navy would not have 
taken the ship away from him, had he asked to 
retain her, but with true magnanimity he gave 
her up to Bainbridge. Hull knew that Bainbridge 
was justly entitled to her, and he was not the man 
to withhold anything from a brother in arms. 
Bainbridge therefore took her, and went out and 
captured the Java.^ 

Hull was actively, though not brilliantly, em- 
ployed during the rest of the war, but did not get 
afloat again, as there were more captains than 
frigates. In 1813 he married a beautiful girl, the 
daughter of a clergyman. She had laughed at 
his pretensions when he was only a lieutenant ; 
but after his great cruise she said, when she knew 
it would be repeated to Hull, " How delightful it 
must be to be the wife of a hero ! " He took the 
hint, and soon after they were married. 

Hull's subsequent career was one of honor and 
usefulness. He was a great hater of idleness, and 

1 See the biography of Bainbridge. 
165 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

often said, " Idleness will soon bring any man to 
ruin." He had fine commands, both ashore and 
afloat, and hoisted his broad pennant over sev- 
eral splendid squadrons. In 1836 he commanded 
the Mediterranean station. At Gibraltar he found 
his old friend Dacres, then an admiral, also in 
command of a squadron. The two met with de- 
light. Admiral Dacres showed Commodore Hull 
the greatest attention, and at a splendid dinner 
given in his honor on the British flagship the 
admiral told Mrs. Hull, who was present, the story 
of the saving of his wife's Bible. Later, both of 
them having been detached from their squadrons, 
they were in Rome for a winter together, and were 
inseparable. Admiral Dacres was a remarkably 
tall, thin man, while Commodore Hull was some- 
what the size and shape of a hogshead; and 
the wags had infinite amusement over the queer 
figures of these two heroic men. 

On Commodore Hull's retirement he made his 
home in Philadelphia. He always wore his uni- 
form, and as he walked the streets every hat was 
doffed to him, and the salute was courteously re- 
turned. The end came in February, 1843. His 
last words were, " I strike my flag," — words that 
he had never before had occasion to utter. He 
was a devout Christian, and during his whole life 
he honestly lived up to the requirements of a 
just and pious manhood. 



166 




Charles Stewart 



CHARLES STEWART. 

In the splendid galaxy of naval officers of the 
early part of tlie century each one seems to have 
gained some special distinction, equally brilliant, 
but differing entirely from any other. Thus, as 
Hull made the most remarkable escape on record, 
and Decatur succeeded in the most daring enter- 
prise, so Stewart may be credited with the most 
superb seamanship in the one great fight that fell 
to his lot, for with one ship, the glorious Con- 
stitution, he fought two vessels at the same time, 
raking them repeatedly, without once being raked 
himself, and in the end forcing the surrender of 
both his antagonists. 

Charles Stewart was born in Philadelphia in 
1778, and entered the merchant service at thir- 
teen years of age. At twenty he had risen to the 
command of a fine vessel in the India trade, but 
on the reorganization of the navy in 1798 he was 
given a naval commission. His rise in the navy 
was rapid, as he was an accomplished seaman 
when he joined it. After serving for a short 
time as a midshipman, he was made the junior 
lieutenant on the United States, frigate, when 
she was commissioned at the beginning of hostili- 

167 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

ties with France. With him on this cniise were 
Decatur and Somers ; and, as Fenimore Cooper 
aptly says, the noble frigate turned out to be a 
nursery of heroes. 

Stewart began the cruise as fourth, and ended 
it as first, lieutenant. He was of commanding fig- 
ure and of pleasing address, and his capacity was 
such that from the first he was thought likely to 
distinguish himself. 

When the United States was laid up in ordi- 
nary, Stewart was given the command of a small 
schooner, the Experiment. In this little vessel he 
showed much spirit and enterprise, making many 
captures, and fighting whenever he had a chance. 

Stewart was, like Decatur, of an impetuous and 
even domineering disposition, and made every- 
body under him " walk Spanish," as the sailors 
said. But he himself knew how to obey promptly. 
Once, having received a peremptory order from 
his superior officer to report with his ship imme- 
diately, Stewart sailed, towing his mainmast after 
him, as he had not time to have it fitted and did 
not choose to wait. 

In 1803 he was sent to the Mediterranean with 
the Siren, a beautiful little cruiser, as a part 
of Commodore Preble's squadron destined to 
reduce Tripoli. Stewart was the senior among 
the commodore's " schoolboy captains," and second 
in command to Commodore Preble himself. 

Although he had no opportunity of performing 

168 



CHARLES STEWART 

deeds like Decatur's in the Tripolitan war, his 
general good conduct was highly praised, and 
the Siren was brilliantly engaged in all the 
glorious actions of that famous time. At the 
beginning of the war of 1812 Stewart was given 
the command of the Constellation, frigate, which 
shared with the Constitution the reputation of 
being a lucky ship, — lucky in meeting and 
whipping her enemies when the force was any- 
thing like equal, and lucky in running away 
when they were too many for her. Stewart 
took command of this noble ship at Annapolis 
in 1813. He was ordered to Norfolk, and took 
the ship to Hampton Roads. He arrived and 
anchored one night, and next morning at day- 
light there were five British men-of-war in sight 
of him. The Constellation endeavored to get 
out of the way, and the British ships chased her, 
but, the wind failing, both the pursuers and the 
pursued were becalmed. Stewart, though, remem- 
bering the Constitution's escape by kedging from 
a British squadron, concluded it would never do 
that the Constellation should not succeed equally 
as well ; so, putting out his boats, the frigate 
was kedged up toward Norfolk, until the tide 
fell, and she took the ground at Seawell's Point, 
not far from the present Fort Monroe. The mud 
was soft, the ship's bottom was hard, and the 
tide would rise ; so Stewart felt no alarm about 
her. The British squadron were also waiting for 

169 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

• 

the tide, but they did not think that Stewart 
would attempt to get his ship up the narrow and 
tortuous channel to Norfolk. 

They did not know Stewart, though. As soon 
as the darkness of the winter night came, and 
the tide began to lift the ship out of the mud, he 
sent pilots ahead to buoy the channel with lights. 
The ship, helped somewhat by the wind, but 
towed by the boats, would go a mile or two up 
to the nearest buoy, when that light would be 
put out, and she would be headed for the next 
one. So quietly was this done that the British 
never suspected what was going on. But when 
daylight came there was no Constellation to be 
seen ; she was safe in the Elizabeth River. 

The British determined to blockade her there, 
and succeeded in doing so ; but although they 
made several desperate attempts to carry her 
by boarding, they never succeeded. Stewart had 
her so well guarded with boats, and the boats 
with a circle of booms, while the ship was pro- 
tected with boarding netting, her guns kept double- 
shotted, and her officers and crew always on the 
alert, that her enemies themselves were forced to 
admire the care taken of her. It was the joke 
among the British officers that Stewart must be 
a Scotchman, he was so wary and so watchful 
with his ship ; and the British Admiral is said to 
have remarked : " If that had been a French ship, 
we would have had her long ago." 

170 



CHARLES STEWART 

Having satisfied himself that although the 
Constellation could not be taken, yet it was un- 
likely that she would get out during the war, 
Stewart applied for and got the Constitution. 
This was in 1814. The Constitution had then 
made her celebrated escape from Admiral Broke's 
squadron, and had destroyed the Guerriere and 
the Java, — for when " Old Ironsides " got 
through with an enemy, he was generally 
past saving. It may be imagined with what 
splendid hopes Stewart took the great ship after 
she had been refitted at Boston. He got out, 
although seven British ships blockaded Boston, 
and sailed to the West Indies. He made a few 
prizes, and took a small British cruiser ; but this 
was not enough for the Constitution to do. 
Stewart's disappointment with his cruise was 
great, and it almost seemed as if the ship were 
no longer to be a favorite of fortune, until she 
was chased by two frigates, the Junon and the 
Tenedos, off the Massachusetts coast. Stewart 
had a good pilot aboard, and he made for Marble- 
head under a spanking breeze, with the two 
British frigates legging it briskly after him. The 
Constitution drew about twenty-two feet of water, 
and Stewart could not conceal his anxiety as 
the pilot carried her along the dangerous coast, 
and it seemed as if any moment slie might be 
put on the rocks. The pilot, though, a cool- 
headed, steady fellow, knew his business, and was 

171 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

nettled at Stewart's evident uneasiness. The 
British ships, not knowing the coast, declined to 
follow, and were falling slightly astern; but it 
looked as if the Constitution would only escape 
one danger to be destroyed by another. Pres- 
ently Stewart asked the pilot for the hundredth 
time, — 

" How many feet of water has she under her 
keel now, pilot ?" 

" Two," answered the pilot ; when, seeing 
Stewart's countenance turn pale with apprehen- 
sion, he added nonchalantly : " And afore long 
she won't have but one ! " 

The effect of this news upon the captain of a 
war-ship may be imagined ; but in a moment or 
two the ship slipped into deep water, and, carry- 
ing sail hard, got into Marblehead safe and 
sound, while cheering multitudes flocked to the 
shore to welcome her. 

In a few days Stewart succeeded in slipping 
into Boston again, — the sixth time in the course 
of the war that the ship had eluded the British 
blockade. Stewart took up his berth in the upper 
harbor, and as he was known to be a fighting 
captain with a fighting ship, the State and city 
authorities concluded that they would rather have 
him a little fartlier off. Accordingly they asked 
him to take his ship down into the lower harbor, 
as, if the British blockading fleet attacked him 
where he was, the cannonade would do great dam- 

172 



CHARLES STEWART 

age to the town. Stewart's reply to this request 
was characteristic. He coolly informed them that 
he should stay where he was, but it would make 
very little difference to them where he lay, as, 
" if attacked, I shall make such a defence as will 
endanger the town." He recommended them to 
build some additional batteries to defend the 
town. The authorities had to be satisfied with 
this reply ; but they took Stewart's advice, and 
increased their batteries so that they were better 
prepared than before to meet a bombardment, 
should the British fleet treat them to one. 

On the 17th of December, 1814, Stewart again 
slipped past the blockading fleet, making the 
seventh time the Constitution had done this, and 
sailed on his last and greatest cruise. He had 
lately been married, and it is said that he asked 
his wife what he should bring home to her. She 
replied, "A British frigate." Stewart replied, 
" I will bring you two of them." He kept liis 
promise. 

Stewart was soon on the broad ocean. Noth- 
ing of note happened until February, when one 
morning, off the coast of Portugal, Stewart sud- 
denly and from no reason he was able to give, 
except an unaccountable impulse to proceed to a 
certain spot in the Atlantic, changed the ship's 
course and ran off sixty miles to the southwest. 
At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 20th of 
February, 1815, about sixty leagues southwest of 

173 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

the Madeira islands, a small frigate, the Cjane, 
was sighted, and a little later a large sloop-of- 
war, the Levant. The Constitution immediately 
gave chase, although it was thought that one of 
the ships was much heavier than she really was, 
as she had double gun-streaks and false ports 
painted amidships, which the Americans, in 
chasing, took for real guns and ports. 

It soon became plain that the two ships were 
bent on fighting, but they manoeuvred in a very 
masterly manner for several hours, in order to 
get together before trying conclusions with the 
great frigate. At five minutes past six o'clock 
they hove to and hoisted their ensigns, and the 
Constitution replied by showing her colors. The 
three sliips were arranged like the points of 
an equilateral triangle, — a very advantageous 
position for the two attacking ships, but one 
which was turned by the superb seamanship of 
Stewart to his own profit by what is commonly 
esteemed to have been the finest manoeuvring 
ever known of an American ship in action. 
Stewart fought his port and starboard batteries 
alternately, giving one of his antagonists a terrible 
broadside, then wearing, and letting fly at the 
other, raking them repeatedly, and handling his 
ship in such a manner that neither the Levant nor 
the Cyane ever got in a single raking broadside. 

Soon after the action began, a full moon arose 
in splendor, and by its radiance the battle went 

174 



CHARLES STEWART 

on stoutly. There was a good working breeze, 
and the British captains handled their ships ad- 
mirably, but "Old Ironsides" appeared to be 
playing with tliem. She answered her helm 
beautifully, and always presented her broadside 
to the ship that attempted to approach her. 
Soon both the British ships were suffering dread- 
fully, and the leading ship, the sloop-of-war 
Levant, was forced to wear under a raking broad- 
side from the Constitution, and ran off to lee- 
ward, unable to stand the lire. Having disposed 
of her, the Constitution now turned her attention 
to the other ship, the light frigate Cyaue, and 
another raking broadside caused her to strike her 
colors. Stewart at once sent Lieutenant Ballard 
and a prize crew aboard of her, and after repair- 
ing the slight damages his ship had sustained, 
set off to look for the Levant. She too had 
repaired damages, and, altliough free to escape, 
was gallantly returning to meet her mighty an- 
tagonist again. For a time the little Levant 
bravely withstood the heavy frigate's fire, but at 
last was forced to run away, the Constitution 
pursuing her. The two ships were so close that 
those in the Constitution could hear the planks 
ripping on the Levant as the heavy shot tore 
through her. At ten o'clock she was overhauled, 
and forced to strike also, and tlie Constitution 
liad gained the most brilliant and seamanlike of 
all her victories. 

175 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

The Constitution lost in this fight three men 
killed and twelve wounded. The other two ships 
lost, altogether, nineteen killed and forfcy-two 
wounded. 

The Constitution, with her two prizes, made 
sail for Porto Pray a, where they arrived on the 
10th of March. Next day, about twelve o'clock, 
while the captured officers of the Cyane and 
Levant were on the quarter-deck, the first lieu- 
tenant, happening to pass along, heard a little 
midshipman who had been taken on the Cyane 
utter an exclamation to Captain Falcon, late of 
the Cyane, — 

^' Oh, Captain Falcon," he cried, " look at the 
large ship in the offing ! " 

" Hold your tongue, you little rascal ! " an- 
swered Captain Falcon, in a low voice. 

The American lieutenant looked up and saw, 
on the top of a fog bank that lay on the water, 
the sails of a large ship. Indistinctly as she was 
seen, the squareness and smartness of her rig in- 
duced the lieutenant to think her a man-of-war. 
Instantly he went below and told the captain. 
Stewart, who was shaving, without stopping in 
his occupation, directed him to call the men to 
quarters, and make ready to go out and attack 
the advancing ship. The lieutenant went on 
deck, gave the order, and it was promptly 
obeyed. The men were not surprised, because, 
as they explained, a dog belonging to the ship 

176 



CHARLES STEWART 

had been drowned that day, and they knew they 
would have to fight or run within twenty-four 
hours. Then the lieutenant noticed that two 
more ships had appeared above the fog-bank, 
with the first one. He ran below to tell this to 
Stewart, who was wiping his face and getting 
into his uniform at the same time. 

" Cut the cables," he said, " and signal the 
prizes to do the same and follow us out." 

In another minute he was on deck, and the 
cables were cut, leaving the anchors at the 
bottom, and sail was being made with perfect 
order and marvellous rapidity. In fourteen min- 
utes from the time the first ship had been seen, 
and ten minutes from the time the Constitu- 
tion's cable had been cut, the frigate was stand- 
ing out of the roads under a cloud of canvas, 
ready to fight or run, as occasion might require. 

The trade winds were blowing, and the Con- 
stitution, with her two prizes, passed within gun- 
shot of the three strangers. Some of the English 
prisoners who had been landed, manned a battery 
on shore and opened fire on the Americans. This 
and other circumstances revealed to the British 
squadron that the three ships making out to sea 
were American men-of-war, and they promptly 
tacked and followed. 

The British ships were the Acasta, of forty 
guns, a very fast ship ; the Leander, of fifty 
guns ; and the Newcastle, of fifty guns, all be- 

12 177 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

longing to Admiral Sir George Collier's fleet. 
The British officers, prisoners on the Constitu- 
tion, became jubilant as the British ships gained 
on the Constitution with her two prizes, and 
promised the Americans that " Kerr in the 
Acasta" would soon overhaul the Americans. 
One of the British captains, standing in the 
stern gallery, called out as the Acasta neared 
the Constitution, " Captain Kerr, I envy you 
your glory this day ! " 

Stewart, with his men at quarters and every 
rag of canvas set that would draw, was edging 
off, but prepared to fight the three heavy frigates 
with the Constitution and the two smaller ships 
if obliged to. He signalled the Cyane and 
the Levant to take different courses, so that 
the British squadron might divide in pursuit. 
This was done, and to the amazement of the 
Americans and the painful chagrin of the British 
prisoners the Acasta suddenly went about in 
pursuit of the Levant, which, by a singular mis- 
take, was supposed to be a heavy American frig- 
ate ; the other two ships followed, while the 
Constitution was trotting off at an eleven-knot 
gait. 

The Levant put back to Porto Praya, which 
was a neutral port ; but the three frigates, after 
chasing her in, opened fire on her, and her com- 
mander, Lieutenant Ballard, of the Constitu- 
tion, hauled down his flag. He had his revenge, 

178 



CHARLES STEWART 

though. When the British prize-master came 
on board to take possession of the Levant, he 
said, " This is, I presume, the American man-of- 
war Peacock." "You are mistaken, sir," replied 
Ballard coolly ; " this is the Levant, late of his 
Britannic Majesty's navy, and prize to tlie United 
States ship Constitution." 

The commander of the British squadron was 
censured at home for his mistake in leaving tlie 
Constitution that he might go in pursuit of 
the smaller ship ; and the affair on the part of 
the British was thought to have been bungled 
to the last degree. 

Stewart carried the grand old ship into New 
York the middle of May, and then learned that 
peace had been made many months before. 

He was received with acclamations. The peo- 
ple by that time had come to believe the ship 
invincible. Besides her glorious career before 
Tripoli, she had made two extraordinary escapes 
from British squadrons. She had run the block- 
ade seven times through large British fleets. She 
had captured two heavy frigates, one light frig- 
ate, a large sloop-of-war, and many merchant- 
ships, and had made more than eleven hundred 
prisoners. Her fire had always been fearfully 
destructive, while she had never had any great 
slaughter on her decks, nine being the largest 
number killed in any single engagement. She 
had never lost her commanding officer, either by 

179 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

wounds or death, had never lost a mast, and had 
never taken the ground. This record is not one 
of chance. She was, first, one of the best built 
frigates in the world ; and, second, she was offi- 
cered and manned in a surprisingly good manner. 
Her crews were generally made up wholly of 
American seamen, and her four great command- 
ers during her warlike career — Preble, Hull, 
Bainbridge, and Stewart — would have given a 
good account of any ships they might have com- 
manded. 

Congress rewarded Stewart by a gold medal 
and a resolution of thanks. His officers received 
silver medals, and there was the usual distri- 
bution of prize-money among the officers and 
crew. 

Stewart had a long and distinguished career in 
the navy, rising in 1859 to be senior officer ; but 
his fighting days were his early days. He com- 
manded the Franklin in 1817, a splendid line- 
of-battle ship, and took her to Europe under his 
broad pennant as Commodore. She was visited 
by the Emperor of Austria, and many royal per- 
sons, besides officers of high rank in foreign 
navies, all of whom were struck with admiration 
at her beauty, force, and the fine crew she car- 
ried. Stewart was retired in 1861, and spent his 
last days at his country-place, " Old Ironsides," 
in New Jersey. Among the souvenirs of his great 
fight was a rude iron hilt to his full-dress sword, 

180 



CHARLES STEWART 

a superb Toledo blade. The gold hilt had been 
shot away in his great fight, and the ship's ar- 
morer had made an iron one, which Stewart after- 
ward wore. 

He died in 1869, after having been borne on the 
navy list for seventy-one years, and he was the 
last survivor of the great captains of 1812-15. 



181 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 

The victory won by Perry on Lake Erie, Sep- 
tember 10, 1813, has ever been one of great popu- 
lar renown. It was won in the sight and knowl- 
edge of the American people ; it was the first 
success the American navy ever won in squad- 
ron; the consequences were important; and the 
fact that the battle was won on the Canadian 
line, where the American army had met with 
reverses, was gratifying to the national vanity. 

Perry's youth — he was barely eight-and-twenty 
— was a captivating element in his success, and 
as the victory was due in a great measure to his 
personal intrepidity, he was justly admired for it. 
He cannot be classed with those American com- 
manders, like Paul Jones, Preble, Decatur, and 
Hull, who, either in meeting danger or escaping 
from it, seemed able to compass the impossible ; 
but he was a man of good talents, of admirable 
coolness and courage, and prone to seek active 
duty and to do it. 

Perry was born in Rhode Island in 1785. His 
father was a captain in the infant navy of the 
country, as it was reorganized at the time of the 
French aggressions. Captain Perry's first duty 

182 




Oli\i:u U. Perky 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY 

was to supervise the building of a vessel of war at 
Warren, Rhode Island, some distance from his 
home. He found it necessary to remove to War- 
ren, and took with him Mrs. Perry, leaving the 
home-place in charge of Oliver, then a boy of thir- 
teen. He was, even then, a boy of so much 
steadiness and integrity that he was found quite 
equal to this task. The fever for the sea, though, 
seems to have seized him about that time, and in 
1799, his father having command of a small 
frigate, the General Greene, Oliver was given a 
midshipman's commission, and joined his father's 
ship. Captain Perry was an officer of spirit and 
enterprise, and Oliver saw some real, if not war- 
like, service in the General Greene. 

His next cruise was in the Adams, frigate, 
which was sent out in 1802 to join Commodore 
Morris's squadron at Gibraltar. The orders of 
the squadron were to watch the ships of the 
Barbary powers, and to prevent as far as possi- 
ble their aggressions upon American commerce. 
This was hard and thankless work, and most of 
the younger officers who made the Mediterranean 
cruise in 1802-3 considered themselves as pecu- 
liarly unfortunate, as they were generally ordered 
to return to the United States just at the time 
that the active hostilities began, in which their 
successors reaped so much glory. Perry was one 
of those who made the uneventful cruise of 1802. 
He enjoyed great advantages, though, in sailing 

183 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

on a ship of which Isaac Hull, afterward the cele- 
brated commodore, was first lieutenant. Hull's 
admirable seamanship in navigating the narrow 
straits of Gibraltar in all weathers, and the block- 
ading of Tripoli for eight months during an in- 
clement season, upon a dangerous coast, without 
pilots and with insufficient charts, was a subject 
of general commendation from the officers of the 
squadron. Perry improved his opportunities so 
well that he was given an appointment as act- 
ing lieutenant the day he was seventeen years 
old. It is believed that this is the most 
rapid instance of promotion in the American 
navy. 

Perry returned home in the Adams in the 
autumn of 1803. The next summer it was 
known that a determined attempt would be made 
by Preble's squadron to reduce the Barbary 
powers, and Perry was extremely anxious to be 
on the scene of action. He found himself ordered 
to the Constellation, in the squadron under Com- 
modore Barron which was sent out to assist 
Preble ; but the Constellation and the Presi- 
dent, forty-four guns, did not reach Tripoli until 
Preble had practically completed the work. 
Perry remained in the Constellation several 
months ; but as she was too large to be of much 
service on that coast. Perry thought himself for- 
tunate to be ordered to the schooner Nautilus, 
of fourteen guns, as first lieutenant. This was 

184 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY 

his first duty in that responsible capacity, and he 
acquitted himself well, although only twenty years 
old. He had a beautiful and penetrating voice, 
and this, in addition to his other qualifications, 
made him a brilliant deck officer. 

He took part in the operations off Derne, and 
was highly commended for his conduct. In the 
autumn of 1806 he returned home, and served at 
home stations until 1809, when he got his first 
command. This was a smart little schooner, the 
Revenge, of fourteen guns. 

At that time the occurrences which led to the 
war of 1812-15 were taking place, and Perry 
soon had a chance to show his determination to 
maintain the dignity of the flag he flew. An 
American vessel had been run away with by the 
English captain who commanded her and who 
had hoisted British colors over her. Perry deter- 
mined to take possession of her, although two 
small British cruisers lay near her. This he did, 
supported by three gunboats. The British 
cruisers, appreciating the justice of his conduct, 
did not interfere, although Perry had no means of 
knowing whether they would or not and took all 
the chances. As he was carrying the vessel off, 
he was met by a British sloop-of-war, and her 
captain sent a boat, with a request that Perry 
should come aboard. This Perry flatly refused, 
and, determined that his sliip should not be caught 
unprepared as the Leopard caught the Chesa- 

185 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

peake in 1807,^ he sent his men to quarters, 
and made every preparation to resist; but the 
British ship passed on, and no collision occurred. 
In January, 1811, Perry had the misfortune to 
lose the Eevenge by shipwreck off Watch Hill, 
in Rhode Island ; but the court of inquiry which 
investigated it acquitted him of blame, and 
praised his conduct at the time of the accident. 

When war was declared with Great Britain, 
Perry was in command of a division of gunboats 
at Newport ; but finding there was little chance 
of seeing active service in that duty, he asked to 
be sent to the lakes, where Commodore Chauncey 
was preparing to dispute the possession of those 
great inland seas with the British. 

In the spring of 1813 Perry arrived at Lake 
Erie, and entered upon his duties. The small fleet 
to oppose the British had to be constructed in 
the wilderness, on the shores of the lake ; and 
men and material had to be transported at great 
labor and cost from the seaboard. 

Perry showed the utmost skill, energy, and vig- 
ilance in his arduous work, and built and equipped 
his little squadron in a manner most creditable to 
himself and his subordinates. 

The land forces, operating together with the 
seamen and marines, got command of the Niagara 
River ; but a little British squadron guarded the 
mouth of the river, at which there was a bar 

1 See the biography of James Lawrence. 
186 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY 

wliicli it was thought unlikely the Americans 
could pass and so get into the lake itself. Perry, 
however, watched his chance, and on a Sunday 
afternoon in August, 1813, to his surprise, he 
found the British squadron had disappeared. It 
was said that the British commander, Barclay, 
had gone over to the Canadian side to attend a 
dinner, thinking the Americans could not possibly 
get over the bar before his return. But Perry and 
his officers and men went to work, and by the 
most arduous labor they got all the vessels into 
the lake before Captain Barclay returned. Once 
in the lake, the Americans were much stronger 
than the British, and Perry determined to go in 
search of the enemy. He had much sickness on 
his little squadron, and was ill himself, so that it 
was not until early in September that he was pre- 
pared to fight. Meanwhile the British, although 
having only six vessels to oppose to Perry's nine, 
undauntedly sought the conflict, and on the morn- 
ing of the 10th of September, while Perry was in 
Put-in-Bay, he saw the little British squadron 
standing in the offing. Perry had two brigs, 
the Lawrence, — his own flagship, named for 
the brave Lawrence, — and the Niagara, each of 
which carried twenty guns ; and he had five 
smaller vessels. Captain Barclay had the Detroit, 
— his flagship, of nineteen guns, — the Queen 
Charlotte, of seventeen guns, and four smaller 
vessels. 

187 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

The wind was light and variable, so that the 
American vessels came out slowly ; but the little 
British squadron waited with their topsails to the 
mast, until a quarter to twelve, when the first 
shot was fired by the Detroit. In a very little 
while the action became general, each American 
and British vessel bravely doing its best to get 
alongside its enemy. It was the effort of the 
gallant commanders of the American and British 
squadrons to fight flagship to flagship; and in 
doing this. Perry, in the Lawrence, drew ahead of 
his column, and concentrated upon his ship the 
fire from the Detroit and two other vessels. The 
British fought their batteries with unusual skill, 
and the result soon was that a dreadful slaughter 
took place on the Lawrence's decks, her guns 
were silenced, and she was so much cut up that 
she was totally unmanageable. But Perry, with 
indomitable courage, continued the fight. He 
himself, with the help of the purser and the chap- 
lain, fired the last gun available on the Lawrence. 
Her consort, the Niagara, approached about this 
time, the wind sprang up, and Perry, seeing that 
the battle was passing ahead of him, determined 
to abandon his own unfortunate ship and make 
for the Niagara. He ordered a boat lowered, 
and, taking with him his brother, a little midship- 
man of thirteen years old, he was rapidly pulled 
to the Niagara. Once on board of her, he bore 
up, and soon got her into a position to rake both 

188 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY 

the Detroit and the Queen Charlotte with fearful 
effect. These two vessels, after an heroic defence, 
were compelled to strike, while the seven smaller 
American gunboats soon overpowered the four 
British ones. The Detroit, however, before strik- 
ing had forced the Lawrence to haul down her 
colors; and the fight, as all the others during this 
war, was as creditable to British as to American 
valor. 

The first news of the victory was in Perry's 
celebrated despatch : " We have met the enemy, 
and they are ours." The news from the Canadian 
border had not always been gratifying, and on 
that account the American people were the more 
delighted at this success. Perry was given a 
gold medal and promoted to be a post-captain ; 
for although he had been called commodore by 
courtesy, such was not his real rank at the 
time. 

Perry had no further opportunity of distinguish- 
ing himself before peace was declared, in January, 
1815. He obtained afterward some of the best 
commands in the navy, and in March, 1819, he 
became a commodore in fact, by being given the 
command of a squadron in South America des- 
tined to protect American trade in those quar- 
ters. He hoisted his broad pennant on the John 
Adams, and sailed in June. He reached the 
mouth of the Orinoco River in August, and, al- 
though it was in the midst of the sickly season, 

189 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

he determined to go up the river to Angostura. 
He shifted his flag to the Nonesuch, schooner, 
and sent the frigate to Trinidad. 

After reaching Angostura he remained twenty 
days. Yellow fever was raging, and Perry seems 
to have been singularly indifferent to this fact. 
Fever broke out on the schooner, and it was then 
determined to get back to the sea as soon as pos- 
sible. As they dropped down the river with the 
powerful current two days after leaving Angos- 
tura, Perry got into his gig, and amused himself 
shooting wildfowl on the banks. He was exposed 
to the sun, and that night, after going aboard the 
schooner, which was anchored on the bar at the 
mouth of the river, the weather grew bad, with a 
heavy sea, which washed over the side and leaked 
down into Perry's cabin, drenching him. Next 
morning he was very ill. 

From the first he felt that he should not re- 
cover, and, although calmly preparing for death, 
spoke often of his young wife and little children 
at home. He was very anxious to live until the 
schooner could reach Trinidad and he could, at 
least, die upon his ship. At last, on the 23d of 
August, the Nonesuch reached Port Spain, Trini- 
dad, where the John Adams was at anchor. A 
boat put off at once from the frigate carrying 
the first lieutenant and other officers, in response 
to the signal from the schooner. They found 
Perry in the agonies of death on the floor of 

190 



OLIVER HAZARD PERRY 

the little cabin. He survived long enough to 
show satisfaction at seeing them, and asked feebly 
about the ship ; but in a little while the anxious 
watchers on the frigate saw the flag on the 
Nonesuch slowly half-masted, — Perry was no 
more. 

He was buried at Trinidad with full military 
honors. Some years afterward a ship of war was 
sent by the government to bring back his remains 
to his native country. He sleeps at Newport, 
Rhode Island, near the spot where he was born ; 
and the reputation he left behind him is that of 
a gallant, capable, and devoted officer. 



191 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH. 

Thomas Macdonough may be called the Young 
Commodore ; for he was an acting commodore at 
the age of thirty-one, when the modern naval 
officer is still in subordinate grades of rank. It 
is truly astonishing what wonders were accom- 
plished by men in their first manhood in the 
early days of the American navy, and Macdonough 
had seen as much service as most veterans before 
his twenty-first birthday. He was a son of a 
Revolutionary officer, and was born in Delaware 
in 1783. His diffident and retiring disposition 
was early marked. Fenimore Cooper speaks of 
him in his midshipman days as " the modest but 
lion-hearted Macdonough." The words describe 
him admirably ; for this quiet, silent midshipman 
was always to be found leading the forlorn hope, 
— " the lost children," as the French expressively 
call it. 

Indeed, Macdonough's character as an officer 
and a man is as nearly perfect as can be ima- 
gined ; and when his great talents are considered, 
he may well be held as a type of what the Amer- 
ican naval officer should be. He entered the 
navy in 1800, when he was seventeen, which was 

192 




Thomas Macdonough 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH 

rather old for a midshipman in those days. He 
had enjoyed a good education for his years, and 
remained a close student all his life. He was 
deeply but not obtrusively religious, and no hu- 
man being ever heard a low or profane word 
from his lips. 

Such a young man as Thomas Macdonough 
must make his mark early, and from the first his 
commanding officers reposed the greatest confi- 
dence in him. He was ordered to the Philadel- 
phia, under Captain Bainbridge, when Commo- 
dore Preble went out in 1803 to reduce the Afri- 
can pirates. He happened to have been detached 
from the Philadelphia and in command of a 
prize at Gibraltar when the unfortunate ship went 
upon the rocks near Tripoli, October 31, 1803, 
and he thus escaped the long captivity of his 
shipmates. He reported promptly to Commo- 
dore Preble, and was assigned to the Enterprise, 
schooner, under Decatur, then a young lieutenant 
commandant of less than twenty-five years. It 
may be imagined that no officer in the Mediter- 
ranean squadron felt a more ardent desire than 
Macdonough to rescue Bainbridge and his men 
and to destroy the Philadelphia. 

At last Decatur organized his celebrated ex- 
pedition in the ketch Intrepid, and among the 
eleven officers he selected for that glorious enter- 
prise was Macdonough. At that time Macdonough 
was still a midshipman. He was tall and very 

13 193 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

slender, never having been physically strong ; but 
he was, even then, a man for the post of danger. 

The ketch set off on the 3d of February from 
Syracuse and returned on the 19th, having in 
that time entered the well-guarded harbor of 
Tripoli by night, burned the Philadelphia at 
her moorings, and escaped without losing a man. 
Macdonough was the third man on the Phila- 
delphia's deck, and was especially active in his 
work of distributing the powder for the ship's 
destruction in her storerooms aft. No officer in 
that glorious expedition conducted himself better 
than Macdonough ; and when it is remembered 
that Decatur commanded it, that James Lawrence 
was one of his lieutenants, and Charles Morris, 
who was afterward Captain HulPs first lieutenant 
in the escape of the Constitution and the capture 
of the Guerriere, was one of the midshipmen, it 
will be seen that Macdonough was measured by 
no common standard. 

Macdonough shared in all the glory of those 
splendid campaigns, and received the thanks and 
commendations of his superiors, besides promo- 
tion. In 1806 he was made first lieutenant of the 
Siren, one of the smart brigs that had done 
good service during the Tripolitan war. She was 
at Gibraltar, where the British navy is always 
very much in evidence ; and Macdonough, the mild 
and forbearing, soon had a chance of showing the 
stuff that was in him. One day, while his com- 

194 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH 

manding officer, Captain Smith, was on shore, 
Macdonoiigh noticed a boat going from a heavy 
British frigate that lay close to an American 
merchant vessel. When the boat repassed the 
Siren, on her way back to the frigate, she car- 
ried one more man than she had on leaving the 
frigate. In those days, if a British captain sus- 
pected an American merchant vessel of having a 
British subject among the crew, it was common 
enough to seize the man, and when once on board 
a British ship, it mattered little whether he were 
American or British, there he had to stay. Mac- 
donough suspected this to be the case, and sent 
a boat to the brig to ask if a man had been 
taken and if he were an American. Such was 
actually reported. Macdonough at once ordered 
the first cutter lowered, and although she pulled 
only four oars and the British boat pulled eight, 
he set off in pursuit. He did not catch up with 
the British boat until she was directly under the 
frigate's quarter, and the man in the bow had 
raised his boat-hook. Suddenly Macdonough 
reached forward, and, catching hold of the pris- 
oner, who sat in the stern sheets, lifted him 
bodily into the American boat, and before the 
British could believe their eyes, was well started 
on his way back to the Siren. 

The captain of the frigate had seen the whole 
affair, and in a rage he jumped into a boat and 
headed for the Siren. When he reached her the 

195 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

men of the cutter had gone aboard, and the 
young lieutenant was calmly walking the quarter- 
deck. The captain angrily demanded the man, 
and asked if Macdonough knew the responsibility 
he was taking upon himself in Captain Smith's 
absence. 

" I will not give up the man, and I am account- 
able only to the captain of this ship," replied 
Macdonough. 

*' I could blow you out of the water at this 
moment," said the captain. 

" No doubt you are perfectly able to do it," an- 
swered Macdonough ; " but I will never give up 
that man as long as this ship will float." 

*' You are a very indiscreet and a very young 
man," continued the captain. " Suppose I had 
been in the boat just now ? " 

" I would have taken the man or lost my life." 

" What, sir ! " cried the captain ; " would you 
dare to stop me now if I were to get hold of the 
man ? " 

" I would, and you have only to try it," was 
Macdonough's undaunted reply. 

The captain, seeing nothing was to be got out 
of the resolute young lieutenant, left the ship, 
but was pulled toward the merchant ship. Mac- 
donough had a boat lowered which followed the 
British boat, watching her until she returned to 
the frigate. This action not only won the good 
opinion of the captain and other officers and men 

196 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH 

of the Siren, but of many of the British officers 
as well, who knew how to respect a man of such 
resohite courage. 

Macdonough was ever afterward treated with 
the utmost consideration and politeness by all the 
British officers at Gibraltar, including the officers 
of the overbearing captain. 

At the outbreak of the war with Great Britain 
Macdonough was what was then termed a master 
commandant. His was not the fortune of Deca- 
tur, Stewart, and others of his brave shipmates 
to seek for glory on the wide ocean, but he was 
sent into the wilderness, as it were, to create a 
navy, and to fight the British on the great lakes. 
He established himself with his seamen and work- 
men on the shores of Lake Champlain, and be- 
gan immediately the construction of a fleet. 
Officers and men worked with the greatest ardor, 
and the commodore, as Macdonough was now 
called by courtesy, might often have been seen 
handling the saw and plane. A corvette, called 
the Saratoga, and meant for the commodore's 
flagship, was begun, with several smaller vessels ; 
and so rapidly did they advance that only a few 
weeks from the time the trees were cut down in 
the forest the vessels were launched and being 
made ready for their guns. These had to be 
dragged many hundreds of miles through a path- 
less wilderness, such as the northern and western 
part of New York was then. It was difficult, but 

197 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

still it could be done. When it came to trans- 
porting the cables, though, a point was reached, 
about forty miles from the lake shore where the 
vessels were building, when it seemed impossible 
to move a step farther. There were no roads, 
and the cables had been brought in ox-wagons, 
which now came to a complete standstill. No 
one knew what to do until an old sailor proposed 
that they should stretch each cable its whole 
length, and men, stationed ten yards apart, should 
shoulder it and carry it the forty miles remaining ; 
and this was actually done. 

Meanwhile the British had not been idle, and 
they too, on the other side of the lake, had built 
a frigate, called the Confiance, that was heavier 
than the Saratoga, and they had other smaller 
vessels. Their commanding officer, Captain 
Downie, was a worthy antagonist of Commodore 
Macdonough, and about the same age, while the 
British vessels were manned by seasoned sailors, 
many of whom had served under Nelson and 
CoUingwood. 

Early in September, 1814, both squadrons being 
ready to fight. Commodore Macdonough chose his 
position with a seaman's eye, in Plattsburg bay. 
He knew that his enemy would hunt for him 
wherever he might be, and he chose to fight 
at anchor, rightly supposing that the British, 
through their greater experience, could conduct 
the evolutions of a squadron better than the 

198 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH 

Americans ; for, while none could be more dar- 
ing in action than Macdonough, none was more 
prudent beforehand. The exact knowledge he 
had of the elements for and against him explains 
much of his success. 

On the night of the 9th of September, in the 
midst of storm and tempest, the American squad- 
ron made its way up the lake to Plattsburg har- 
bor. The next morning saw it anchored in the 
admirable order devised by Commodore Mac- 
donough's genius. The flagship, Saratoga, the 
heaviest ship in the squadron, was in the middle 
of the line. Ahead of her was ranged the gun- 
brig Eagle, commanded by Captain Cassin, who 
had been one of Commodore Preble's midship- 
men with Macdonough, eleven years before. The 
Eagle had shoal water off her beam, so that the 
head of the line could not be turned. On the 
other side of the Saratoga was the Ticonderoga, 
a small sloop-of-war, while beyond her was the 
little Preble, named for the great commodore, 
who was no more. There were, besides, ten 
small gunboats, of which the Eagle was sup- 
ported by two, the Saratoga by three, the Ticon- 
deroga by two, while the remaining two were to 
assist the Preble in defending the end of the line. 
All of the vessels were riding easily at anchor, 
and all of them were provided with springs to 
their anchors and kedges, to enable them to 
change their position at will. The wisdom of 

199 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

this precaution was shown on the great day for 
which they were prepared. 

On the 11th of September. 1814, a brilliant 
Sunday morning, just at sunrise, the dazzling 
white topsails of the British fleet were seen pass- 
ing along the neck of land called Cumberland 
Head, which juts into the bay. The American 
guard-boat pulled in, all hands were called to 
quarters in the American squadron, and an Amer- 
ican ensign was set at every masthead. Then on 
board the flagship was made the signal for divine 
service, and Commodore Macdonough, kneeling 
upon his quarterdeck, surrounded by his officers 
and in hearing of his men, with every head bared, 
read the prayers appointed to be read before a fight 
at sea. After this brief but solemn act all awaited 
the onset with steadiness and cheerfulness. 

It had been suggested to him that he should 
issue an extra allowance of grog to the men, but 
he replied, — 

" No. My men shall go cool into action ; they 
need no stimulant beyond their native valor." 

The American vessels were so skilfully moored 
that no matter from what quarter the wind was, 
the British were obliged to approach them " bows 
on," a very dangerous way to attack a bold and 
skilful enemy. 

The British rounded the headland in noble 
style. The Confiance was leading, her brave 
commander. Captain Downie, fatally conspicu- 

200 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH 

ous on her deck, his breast covered with medals 
gloriously earned. Following her, came three 
smaller vessels, the Finch, the Chubb, and the 
Linnet, and twelve gunboats, carrying both sol- 
diers and sailors, and each armed with a single 
long eighteen-pound carronade. 

As the four British ships, each on the same 
tack, neared the American line, the Eagle sud- 
denly roared out a broadside. The shot fell 
short, and the British squadron came on, with 
majestic steadiness, without replying, until the 
Linnet was abreast of the Ticonderoga. Then 
the Linnet let fly a broadside, of which every 
shot dropped into the water except one. This 
one shot, though, struck a chicken-coop on the 
Ticonderoga's deck and smashed it, letting out 
a young game-cock, a pet with the Ticonderoga's 
men. The game-cock, delighted to get his 
liberty, jumped upon a gun-slide and uttered 
a long, loud, and defiant crow at the British 
vessel, which he seemed to think had directed 
her whole broadside at him. The Americans 
burst into three ringing cheers, that shook the 
deck, delighted with the game-cock's courage, 
which he proved further by flying up into the 
rigging and crowing vociferously all the time the 
British were advancing. 

The Confiance came on steadily until just 
abreast of the Saratoga, when Commodore Mac- 
donough himself, sighting a twenty-four pounder, 

201 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

fired the first effective gun of the battle. It struck 
the Confiance near the hawse-hole, and ranged the 
whole length of her deck, doing fearful damage 
and splintering her wheel. A terrible broad- 
side followed; but the Confiance as if disdain- 
ing to answer, moved proudly on to engage at 
close quarters, and not until the wind became 
light and baffiiug did she port her helm about two 
cables' length from the Saratoga. Then she 
opened upon the corvette. Her guns were double- 
shotted, and their effect at close range, in a per- 
fectly smooth sea, was frightful. Meanwhile the 
Linnet and the Chubb had taken position abeam 
of the Eagle, and attacked her w^ith great fury. 
The gunboats had fallen upon the little Preble, 
and soon drove her out of line, when with the 
Finch they concentrated their fire upon the Ti- 
conderoga. The gallant little brig gave them 
plenty to do, and stubbornly defended the end 
of the line. At one moment the gunboats would 
advance upon her, the men standing up ready 
to board her, and would be beaten off in the 
act of entering her ports or springing upon her 
decks. Then they would haul off and pour round 
after round of grapeshot into her. Still the little 
vessel held out. Captain Cassin was seen coolly 
walking the taff'rail, a target for every shot, but 
he escaped without a wound, as if by a miracle. 
At one time all the matches gave out in the divi- 
sion of guns commanded by midshipman Pauld- 

202 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH 

ing.i This young officer, who was an acting lieu- 
tenant, although only sixteen years old, had the 
wit and readiness to fire his guns by snapping his 
pistol at the touch-hole. 

Nothing could exceed the determined valor with 
which the Saratoga and the Confiance kept up 
the fight. The Linnet presently turned her 
attention to the Saratoga, and poured one rak- 
ing broadside into her after another, besides 
what she had to take from the Confiance. The 
brave Captain Downie had been mortally wounded 
early in the engagement, but the ship was still 
admirably fought. On the Saratoga three times 
the cry went up that Commodore Macdonough 
was killed, for three times was he knocked 
senseless to the deck ; but each time he rose, 
none the worse except for a few cuts and 
bruises. 

The guns on the engaged side of the Sara- 
toga became disabled one by one, by the long 
twenty-fours in the main-deck battery of the 
Confiance, which, though suffering from the 
musketry fire of the Americans, was yet doing 
magnificent work. At last but a single gun of 
the starboard batteries of the Saratoga remained 
serviceable, and in firing it the bolt broke, the 
gun flew off the carriage, and actually tumbled 
down the hatchway. 

The ship was afire in several places, due to the 

1 Afterward Kear-Admiral Paulding. 
203 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

hot shot poured into her by the Confiance, one- 
fourth of her men were killed, and she had not a 
gun available on her engaged side ; while both 
the Confiance and the Linnet were giving her 
one raking broadside after another. In this 
awful extremity Commodore Macdonough deter- 
mined to wind his ship, which means to turn 
the ship completely around so that she could use 
her uninjured batteries. This difficult but bril- 
liant manoeuvre was executed with the utmost 
coolness, and soon she sprung a new broadside 
on the Confiance. The Confiance attempted 
the same manoeuvre, but she only got partly 
round, when she hung with her head to the 
wind, in a terrible position, where the fresh bat- 
teries of the Saratoga raked her fore and aft. 
No ship could stand this long and live ; and after 
two hours of as desperate fighting as was ever 
seen, the Confiance was forced to haul down 
her colors. 

By that time the Finch had been driven out 
of the fight, and the Chubb had been shot 
wholly to pieces. The little Linnet, though, 
alone and single-handed, undauntedly sustained 
the fight, hoping that some of the gunboats 
might be able to tow her off. But when the 
Saratoga had finished with the Confiance, with- 
out a moment's loss of time, she turned her 
broadside on the Linnet, and soon forced her to 
strike, with her hull ridd^led like a sieve, her 

204 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH 

masts gone, and the water a foot deep in her 
hold. By midday all was over, and of the six- 
teen British ensigns that had fluttered proudly in 
the morning air, not one remained. It was one 
of the most destructive naval engagements ever 
fought. In Commodore Macdonough's official 
report, he says there was not a mast left in either 
squadron on which sail could be made. Some of 
the British sailors had been at Trafalgar, and they 
all agreed that the fighting of that 11th of Sep- 
tember had been more severe than at Trafalgar. 

The American sailors fought with extraordi- 
nary coolness, and many amusing as well as 
terrible and inspiring things occurred. One old 
sailor on the Saratoga, who had worked and fought 
all during the battle and had been slightly wounded 
several times, was seen mopping his face de- 
lightedly while calling out to one of his messmates, 
" Ay, Jack, this is the best fun I 've had this war." 

Another, getting a shot through his glazed hat, 
took it off, and, turning to an officer, said in a 
tone of bitter complaint, " Look a-here, sir ; them 
Johnny Bulls has spiled my hat. Now, what am 
I going to do for a hat ? " 

As soon as the Linnet struck, the British 
officers, led by Captain Bring, who succeeded 
Captain Downie in command, came aboard the 
Saratoga to deliver their swords. All the Ameri- 
can officers were assembled on her quarterdeck, 
and as^the British officers approached Commo- 

205 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

dore Macdonough with their swords extended, 
he said, with deep feeling, — 

" Gentlemen, your gallant conduct makes you 
the more worthy to wear your swords. Return 
them to their scabbards," 

At once every attention was given the wounded, 
the officers working side by side with the men. 
Captain Pring, in his report, says : — 

" I have much satisfaction in making you ac- 
quainted with the humane treatment the wounded 
have received from Commodore Macdonough. 
They were immediately removed to his own hos- 
pital at Crab Island, and furnished with every 
requisite. His generous and polite attention to 
myself, the officers, and men, will ever be grate- 
fully remembered." All this was quite character- 
istic of Macdonough, who united the tenderness 
of a woman with a lion-like courage. 

The night of the battle the commodore visited 
every ship in the squadron, and personally ex- 
pressed to the officers and men his appreciation 
of their gallant services that day. 

The news of the victory was received all over 
the country with manifestations of joy. Congress 
passed the usual resolution of thanks to Mac- 
donough, his officers and men, gave him and 
his two commanding officers gold medals, silver 
medals to the lieutenants, and a handsome sword 
to each of the midshipmen, with a liberal award 
of prize money to the men. Macdonough was 

206 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH 

made a post-captain, his commission dating from 
the day of the battle. 

The State of Vermont gave him an estate over- 
looking the scene of his victory, and many States 
and towns made him presents. Macdonough bore 
all these honors with characteristic modesty and 
simplicity, and, instead of being elated by them, 
tears came into his eyes in speaking of what his 
country had bestowed upon him. 

Soon after this peace was declared, and Mac- 
donough returned again to service on the ocean. 
His health had always been delicate, and as years 
passed on, it grew more so. But he continued to go 
to sea, and did his full duty as always. In 1825 
he was in command of the glorious old Consti- 
tution, as his flagship on the Mediterranean 
station. She had been splendidly refitted, sailed 
admirably, both on and off the wind, and, as the 
sailors said, " looked like a new fiddle." He 
made his last cruise in this noble ship. His 
health rapidly declined, and on his way home 
from the Mediterranean he died and was buried 
at sea on the 10th of November, 1825. 

Few men have enjoyed more national esteem 
and affection than Macdonough. His career 
shows that a man may have the softest manners 
and mildest disposition along with an invincible 
courage and a high spirit. Macdonough may be 
taken as the type of a great seaman and a pure 
and perfect man. 

207 



JAMES LAWRENCE. 

The name of Lawrence, like that of Somers, 
is associated with youth, with gallantry, and with 
misfortune. It was his fate, after many brilliant 
and heroic successes, to lay down his life and lose 
his ship ; but his colors were hauled down, not by 
himself, but by the enemy, and his last utterance, 
" Don't give up the ship," which has become the 
watchword of the American navy, was literally 
obeyed. It is remarkable that this unfortunate 
vessel, the Chesapeake, never was formally sur- 
rendered, but was taken possession of and her 
flag struck by her captors. 

James Lawrence was born in Burlington, New 
Jersey, in 1781. His family were persons of 
consideration and property, and Lawrence was 
destined to be a lawyer. He was a remarkably 
handsome, gentle, and docile boy, and it was a 
surprise to his family when, at twelve years of 
age, he developed a passionate desire to enter the 
newly created navy. He never wavered from this 
wish, but, being a singularly obedient boy, he 
agreed to try the study of the law for a time, and 
applied himself seriously to it for a year or two. 
In 1798, however, when he was in his eighteenth 

208 




James Lawkexce 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

year, and when his natural bent was fully indi- 
cated, his inclination toward the navy became 
overpowering. His family wisely released him 
from the law, which was so distasteful to him, 
and got him a midshipman's warrant in the navy. 
His first service was in the Ganges, a small 
twenty-four-gun frigate. At the time of his 
entrance into the navy he was of a noble and 
commanding figure, of captivating manners, and 
although somewhat impatient in temper, at heart 
entirely amiable and generous. From the begin- 
ning he was remarkable for his kindness and 
consideration toward his inferiors. When it was 
necessary to punish the sailors, and Lawrence 
had to superintend the punishment, his eyes 
would fill with tears; and when he became a 
lieutenant, his popularity with the midshipmen 
was unbounded. It is told of him that once 
the midshipmen in Commodore Rodgers's squad- 
ron determined to give the commodore a dinner, 
to which none of the lieutenants were to be in- 
vited. All were agreed to leave out the lieuten- 
ants, when one of the midshipmen cried, " What ! 
not ask Mr. Lawrence ! " The impossibility of 
leaving Lawrence out seemed patent to all of 
them ; and to make the compliment more marked, 
he was the only lieutenant asked to meet the 
commodore. 

Lawrence's first service in the Ganges was 
during the troubles with France. The Ganges 



u 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

patrolled the seas, and caught several French 
privateers which made a good resistance, but 
never got alongside a vessel of equal force. 

In 1802 Lawrence went out to the Mediter- 
ranean in the Enterprise, as first lieutenant. 
This gallant little schooner fully sustained her 
reputation in the operations of Commodore 
Morris's squadron, which preceded Commodore 
Preble's by a year. Although the war had just 
begun, and had not yet assumed the fierce and 
determined character of the following year, 
yet the Bashaw had a foretaste in 1803 of what 
was to befall him in the way of bombardments 
and boat attacks in 1804. In one of the boat 
attacks Lawrence volunteered, and his conduct 
on the occasion won high praise. 

The force was under the command of Lieuten- 
ant David Porter, first lieutenant of the New 
York, flagship, who had already distinguished 
himself against the French, and was destined to 
make one of the most daring cruises in the his- 
tory of navies. 

The New York, with the Adams, frigate, and 
the little Enterprise, began the blockade of 
Tripoli in May, 1803. A number of merchant 
vessels, protected by gunboats, ran under the 
batteries of the old part of the town, where they 
were comparatively safe from ships of the draught 
of the American squadron. Every preparation 
was made to defend them, but Porter, Lawrence, 

210 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

and other brave and daring young spirits deter- 
mined to make a dash for them and destroy them 
if possible. Having got the commodore's per- 
mission, an attacking party was organized under 
Porter, with Lawrence as second in command, 
with three other officers and a number of picked 
men. On the morning of the attack the boats 
advanced boldly, in the face of a sharp musketry 
fire, and succeeded in making a landing. The 
Tripolitans adopted their usual style of hand-to- 
hand fighting, but in spite of it the vessels were 
fired and the Americans retired with slight loss. 
The Tripolitans, by the most tremendous efforts, 
put out the fire and saved their vessels ; but they 
discovered that the Americans were disposed to 
come to close quarters with them, which policy 
finally brought down the power of the Barbary 
States. 

Lawrence, as well as Porter, was particularly 
distinguished in this dashing little affair. The 
next adventure in which Lawrence was engaged 
was a few weeks after; the Enterprise being 
under the command of Hull, then a lieutenant 
commandant. It had been determined to hunt 
up the Tripolitan ships of war wherever found. 
The Enterprise was engaged in this service, 
and on a June morning, very early, the lookouts 
from the Adams, frigate, observed a signal flying 
from the Enterprise of " Enemy in sight." A 
Tripolitan frigate, supported by nine gunboats, 

211 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

trying to get to sea from Tripoli, had been penned 
up in a narrow bay by the Enterprise, which, 
too weak to attack, signalled for her more pow- 
erful consort to come to her assistance. The 
Adams responded promptly, the Enterprise mean- 
while maintaining her station with as much dar- 
ing as if she were a forty-four-gun frigate instead 
of a twelve-gun schooner. As soon as the wind 
permitted the Adams to get within range, she 
opened with terrible effect upon the corsair, 
which replied vigorously, and did not strike until 
she had received the fire of the Adams, in smooth 
water and at short range, for three quarters of an 
hour. Soon after her colors were hauled down, 
fire readied her magazine, and she blew up. 

It was Lawrence's extreme good fortune, after 
serving under such a captain as Isaac Hull, 
to serve next under Decatur. The Argus, one 
of the four handsome little vessels built for the 
war with Tripoli, had been sent out under Decatur, 
who was to exchange her for the Enterprise, Hull's 
superior rank entitling him to the larger vessel. 
Yet it is remarkable that the little Enterprise, 
although distinctly inferior to the other four small 
vessels, survived every one of them, and had an 
unbroken career of success both in running and 
fighting. 

As soon as Decatur took the Enterprise, and 
had got a good look at Tripoli on the reconnoi- 
tring expedition made by Commodore Preble in 

212 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

the early winter of 1803, the idea of the destruc- 
tion of the Philadelphia and the release of Bain- 
bridge and his companions possessed his mind. 
It may be imagined that Lawrence ardently sym- 
pathized with him, and in his young first lieuten- 
ant Decatur recognized a daring and steadfast 
spirit akin to his own. It was Decatur's habit, in 
speaking of Lawrence, to say, " He has no more 
dodge in him than the mainmast," which was 
true. 

In the same month of December the Enter- 
prise captured the ketch Meshouda, which, re- 
named the Intrepid, was to take part in one of 
the most glorious successes, and afterward in 
one of the most heart-breaking tragedies, of the 
American navy. 

In the preparation of the ketch, and in work- 
ing out the details of his plan, Decatur was ably 
seconded by his first lieutenant. The expedition 
for the destruction of the Philadelphia was ex- 
actly suited to a man of Lawrence's vigorous and 
imaginative temperament. 

If a precise record remained of that immortal 
expedition, — the six days of storm and tempest, 
in which the ketch, ill ventilated and crowded with 
men who were wet to the skin most of the time 
and half starved because their provisions were 
spoiled by salt water, was blown about the African 
coast, — how surpassingly interesting it would be ! 
It is known, however, that both ofiicers and men 

213 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

not only kept up their determination, but their 
gayety. On that February evening when the 
ketch stole in and made fast to the Philadel- 
phia to destroy her, Lawrence, next to Decatur, 
bore the most active part. It was he who com- 
manded the boat that put out from the ketch 
and coolly fastened a hawser to the forechains 
of the doomed frigate ; and it was he who in- 
tercepted the frigate's boat and took the fast 
from it and passed another line from the Phila- 
delphia's stern into the ketch. When Decatur 
shouted, " Board ! " Lawrence was among the first 
to land on the quarterdeck, and as soon as that 
was cleared, he dashed below, accompanied by 
two midshipmen, as intrepid as himself, — Mr. 
Laws and the indomitable Macdonough, — with 
ten men, and fired the berth-deck and all the 
forward storerooms. Nothing is more extraor- 
dinary than the quickness and precision with 
which every order was carried out on that night 
of glory. Lawrence and his party were in the 
ship less than twenty-five minutes, yet they were 
the last to drop into the ketch.^ On their return 
after this celebrated adventure, Lawrence received 
his due share of praise. 

There was much hard work to be done by every 
officer in the squadron before it was ready to 
attack Tripoli in August, 1804, and Lawrence, as 
first lieutenant, did his part. Once before Tripoli, 

^ See the biography of Decatur. 
2U 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

there was severe fighting as well as hard work. 
The fact that Decatur was taken out of his ship 
so often to lead a division of the boats, left the 
command of the Enterprise much to Lawrence, 
and he handled the little schooner in the most 
seamanlike manner. 

In the winter of 1804-5 the government deter- 
mined to build a number of small gunboats, to 
renew the attacks on Tripoli in the summer. 
Some of the lieutenants who had returned to 
the United States in the changes necessary in the 
squadron, were selected to take them out to the 
Mediterranean. Lawrence, who had come back 
to the United States after spending two years in 
the Mediterranean, was given the command of 
one of these little vessels, Number Six, — for they 
were thought to be too insignificant to name and 
consequently were merely numbered. They car- 
ried a large spread of canvas, but their gunwales 
were so near the water that they looked rather 
like rafts than boats. On the way over, 
Lawrence was sighted by the British frigate 
Lapwing, which sent a boat to rescue them, sup- 
posing them to be on a raft after a shipwreck. 
Lawrence thanked the officer in charge of the 
boat, but proceeded on his way. 

Commodore Rodgers was then in command of 
the American force which again appeared before 
Tripoli in May, 1805 ; and without firing a gun 
a treaty of peace and the release of the Phila- 

215 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

delphia's officers and men were secured. The 
squadron then sailed for Tunis, where it intim- 
idated the Tunisians into good behavior and 
negotiated a treaty of peace under the threat of 
a bombardment. 

Soon after most of the vessels returned home. 
Lawrence recrossed the ocean again in his gun- 
boat, and commanded her for some time after. 

On the 22d of June, 1807, occurred the pain- 
ful and mortifying rencounter of the Chesa- 
peake, frigate, with the British frigate Leopard, 
one of the most far-reaching events in the 
American navy. As the name of Lawrence will 
ever be connected with the unfortunate Chesa- 
peake, the story of that unhappy event can be 
told here. 

The Chesapeake was a comparatively new 
ship, carrying thirty-eight guns, and was put 
in commission to relieve the Constitution in the 
Mediterranean. She seems to have been an 
unpopular ship from the first, as she was thought 
to be weak for her size, and was a very ordinary 
sailer. She was to wear the broad pennant of 
Commodore James Barron, who had Captain 
Gordon as his flag captain. Both of these men 
were esteemed excellent officers. 

The Chesapeake was fitted partly at the 
Washington Navy Yard and partly at the Norfolk 
Navy Yard. There had been a charge that she 
had among her crew three deserters from the 

216 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

British frigate Melampus. The charge had been 
investigated, however, and found to be a mis- 
take. It was known that the Leopard, of fifty 
guns, was hanging about outside the capes of 
Virginia, but it was not suspected that she would 
attempt to stop the Chesapeake. The British 
government, arrogant in its dominion over the 
sea, had claimed and exercised the right of 
searching merchant vessels; and the United 
States, a young nation, with a central govern- 
ment which was still an experiment as well 
as an object of jealousy to the State govern- 
ments, had submitted from not knowing exactly 
how to resist. But with a ship of war it was 
different, and neither the authorities nor the 
people of the United States dreamed that any 
attempt would be made to violate the deck of a 
national vessel. 

There seems to have been great negligence in 
preparing the Chesapeake for sea, and when she 
sailed she was in a state of confusion, her decks 
littered up, and none of the apparatus used in 
those days for firing great guns was available. 
Neither was her crew drilled, having been at 
quarters only three times. Her officers were 
men of spirit, but there seems to have been a 
fatal laxness in getting her ready for sea. 

The Chesapeake, with a good wind, dropped 
down to Hampton Roads, and was soon stretch- 
ing out to sea. About noon the Leopard was 

217 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

discerned, and from the first seemed to be fol- 
lowing the Chesapeake. At three o'clock the 
two, still making for the open ocean, were near 
enough to speak, and the Leopard hailed, saying 
she had despatches for Commodore Barron. 
This was not remarkable, as such courtesies 
were occasionally exchanged between ships of 
friendly nations. The Chesapeake hove to, as 
did the Leopard, close to each other, when the 
Chesapeake's officers noticed that the British 
frigate had her guns run out, and was evidently 
perfectly ready for action. Very soon a boat 
put off from her, and a lieutenant came aboard 
the Chesapeake. He went below into the great 
cabin, and handed Commodore Barron a letter 
from Vice-Admiral Berkley, dated at Halifax, 
directing him on meeting the Chesapeake to 
search her for the three alleged deserters, and 
offering to allow the Leopard to be searched if 
desired. 

Commodore Barron was a brave man and a 
good officer in general, but he appears to have 
been seized with one of those moments of inde- 
cision which in a few minutes can wreck a 
whole life. It is difficult, though, to imagine 
how one could act judiciously in an emergency 
so terrible, when the choice lies between sub- 
mitting to a frightful insult and provoking a 
conflict which must result in the loss of many 
gallant and innocent men. The commodore's real 

218 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

fault was in going to sea in an unprepared 
condition. 

Commodore Barron took about half an hour to 
deliberate before sending a reply; and as soon 
as the British boat put off, orders were given to 
clear the ship for action and get the people to 
quarters, and Commodore Barron himself went 
on deck. While this was being done, the 
Leopard hailed, and fired a gun toward the 
Chesapeake, followed by a whole broadside, and 
for about twelve minutes she poured her fire 
into the helpless Chesapeake. Commodore Bar- 
ron, a marine officer, and sixteen men were 
wounded, and three men were killed. Commo- 
dore Barron repeatedly ordered a shot to be fired 
before the ensign was lowered, but there were 
no means at hand for igniting the powder. At 
last a young lieutenant named Allen ran to the 
galley, and, taking a live coal in his fingers, 
rushed back to the gun-deck and succeeded in 
firing one of the guns in his division. At that 
moment the American ensign touched the 
taffrail. 

The Leopard then sent a boat and took pos- 
session of the three alleged deserters, and made 
off, while the disgraced Chesapeake returned 
to Norfolk. 

It is not easy to describe the outburst of 
indignation which followed this mortifying 
event. Commodore Barron was court-mar- 

219 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

ti ailed, but as it was proved that his mistake 
was one of judgment, and that he conducted 
himself well after the danger became imminent, 
he was merelj^ sentenced to five years' suspen- 
sion from the navy. 

The British government disavowed the action 
of Captain Humphries of the Leopard, although 
it did not punish him ; but Vice-Admiral Berkley 
was never again employed in the British navy. It 
also restored the three men it had taken from the 
Chesapeake to the deck of the American frigate. 

After this affair it began to be plain that the 
United States must either boldly repulse the 
efforts of Great Britain in her claims to right of 
search, or else tamely submit. The latter was 
not to be thought of. The war of 1812 was 
fought for the principle of protecting sailors in 
American ships, and for the right to carry goods 
in free bottoms; hence its motto was: "Free 
trade and sailors' rights." 

These were agitating times for the navy, as 
officers of intelligence realized that war was 
coming and it would be chiefly a naval war; and 
they therefore strove diligently to perfect them- 
selves in their profession, so that when they 
came in conflict with the seasoned sailors of 
England the American navy might give a good 
account of itself. 

Lawrence was among the most earnest and 
ambitious of these young officers, and he 

220 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

acquitted himself so well in those intervening 
years that it was plain he would do well in 
whatever situation he was placed. 

In 1808 he was made first lieutenant of the 
Constitution, and that was the last subordinate 
place he held. In 1809 he got the Vixen, which 
he exchanged for the Wasp, and finally the 
Argus. In 1811 he got the Hornet, a fast and 
beautiful little cruiser, carrying eighteen guns, 
and was in command of her when the long- 
expected declaration of war came in 1812. 

The Hornet and the Essex, under Captain 
Porter, were ordered to cruise with Captain 
Bainbridge in the Constitution. But after get- 
ting out from Boston in October, 1812, and cruis- 
ing a few weeks with the Constitution, they 
separated. The Hornet, being off San Salva- 
dor, challenged the Bonne Citoyenne, a vessel 
of about her own strength, to come out and fight. 
As the Bonne Citoyenne had a large amount of 
specie on board which her captain was under 
orders to deliver, he very properly declined to 
fight, and was blockaded by the Hornet for 
nearly three weeks. The Montagu, ship of the 
line, appearing however, Captain Lawrence 
thought it time to be off, and managed to slip 
out to sea in the darkness of an autumn night. 
He cruised some time, taking a few prizes, 
and on the 24th of February came in sight of 
a large man-of-war brig, the Peacock. She was 

221 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

called " the yacht " from the beautiful bright- 
ness and order in which she was kept, and 
was commanded by Captain Peake, a gallant 
and skilful officer. The Peacock showed a per- 
fect willingness to fight, and the two vessels 
stood for each other at once. About five 
o'clock, being very near each other, their en- 
signs were hoisted, and the battle began by 
exchanging broadsides as they passed. After 
one or two rounds the Hornet came down, her 
batteries a sheet of flame, and her fire fright- 
fully destructive to her adversary. The Pea- 
cock stood the blast of fire a very short time, 
fifteen minutes being the longest time esti- 
mated, — Lawrence afterward said it was eleven 
minutes by his watch, but, his clerk having put 
it down fifteen minutes, he allowed it to stand, 
— when the Peacock lowered her colors and 
displayed signals of distress in her forerigging. 
She was in a sinking condition, when a prize 
crew was thrown aboard ; and in spite of every 
effort on the part of the officers and men of 
the Hornet, the Peacock went down, carrying 
nine of her own people and three of the 
Hornet's. The prize-master of the Hornet and 
his boat's crew saved themselves with difficulty 
in the launch. 

The Peacock was well handled and fought by 
her commander, who lost his life in the engage- 
ment. But the Hornet was so skilfully manoeu- 

222 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

vred, and her gunnery, besides being extremely 
accurate, was so rapid, that she had the advan- 
tage from a few minutes after the beginning of 
the combat. She was slightly superior to the 
Peacock both in men and metal, but the damage 
she did was far beyond the small difference of 
strength between her and her antagonist. When 
the Peacock surrendered, her mainmast had gone 
by the board, her hull was riddled, and she had 
six feet of water in her, which soon carried her 
to the bottom; while, by nine o'clock that night, 
every injury to the Hornet had been repaired, 
and she was ready to go into action again. 

Lawrence treated his prisoners with charac- 
teristic generosity, and his example was not lost 
on his men. The Peacock's crew had lost 
everything by the sinking of the ship, and the 
Hornet's men took up a subscription among 
themselves to provide each of the prisoners with 
two shirts, a blue jacket, and trousers. 

Finding himself crowded with prisoners, 
Lawrence stood for home, and arrived at New 
York late in March, 1813. The officers of the 
Peacock, on being paroled at New York, ad- 
dressed him a very handsome letter of thanks, 
in which they said, " We cannot better express 
our feelings than by saying that we ceased to 
consider ourselves prisoners." 

The city of New York, anticipating the 
thanks of Congress, and the gold medal for 

223 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

Lawrence, with prize money for the crew, gave 
Lawrence the freedom of the city and a hand- 
some piece of plate. On the 6th of April a 
great dinner was given at Washington Hall, 
then a splendid place of entertainment in New 
York, to Lawrence and his officers, while in the 
ball-room of the building the petty officers, 
sailors, and marines of the Hornet were enter- 
tained. The sailors landed at Whitehall, and 
with music playing, marched up Pearl Street, 
Wall Street, and Broadway to Washington Hall 
amidst the greatest enthusiasm on the part of 
the inhabitants. After a fine dinner Captain 
Lawrence and his officers, accompanied by the 
members of the city government of New York, 
visited them, and the party was received by the 
sailors rising and giving three times three for 
their commander. The whole body of sailors 
was afterward invited to occupy the pit at the 
theatre, with Lawrence and his officers and their 
hosts in the boxes. The audience cheered the 
sailors vociferously, and the sailors seem to 
have cheered everything; and they were highly 
pleased with their entertainment. 

This was the last glimpse of brightness in 
Lawrence's short life. He had a prospect of 
getting the Constitution, but his hopes were 
dashed by being ordered to command the Ches- 
apeake, then fitting at Boston. 

The ship had become more and more an object 

224 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

of dislike in the navy since her unfortunate 
experience in 1807. Sailors hated her, and 
would not enlist in her if they could help it. 
No officer would serve in her if he could get 
any other ship; consequently she was officered 
by juniors who had to take her because they 
could do no better. She had lately returned 
from a cruise in which she had sailed many 
thousands of miles, under an active and enter- 
prising captain, without once meeting a chance 
to distinguish herself, and capturing only a few 
trifling prizes. Lawrence was dismayed at the 
offer of this command. He begged to remain 
in the Hornet rather than go to the Chesa- 
peake. He told his friends that the frigate 
was a worthless ship, and he would not have 
her if he could honorably refuse; but this he 
could not do. In May, 1813, he took command 
of her. Up to the last moment he hoped to be 
relieved by Captain Stewart, but it was not 
to be. 

He found the ship short of officers, and those 
he had very young. His first lieutenant, Augus- 
tus Ludlow, was a brilliant young officer, but 
twenty-one years of age, who had never served 
before as first lieutenant in a frigate. His 
other sea lieutenants were midshipmen acting 
as lieutenants. His crew was largely made 
up of foreigners; and one, a Portuguese boat- 
swain's mate, was doing what he could to spread 

15 225 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

dissatisfaction among the* men because they had 
not been paid the small amount of prize money 
due from the last cruise. The marine guard 
was made up wholly of Americans, and there 
were a few men from the Constitution. These 
men afterward gave a good account of them- 
selves. 

Outside the harbor of Boston it was known 
that the Shannon, a fine thirty-eight-gun frigate, 
lay in wait for the Chesapeake. Her commander, 
Captain Philip Broke, was one of the best offi- 
cers in the British navy, and had had the ship 
seven years. He had not followed the example 
of so many British captains who neglected gun- 
nery practice with their crews, and paid dearly 
for their rashness with their ships and some- 
times with their lives. Captain Broke was a 
chivalrous man, and, desiring to engage the 
Chesapeake on equal terms, wrote Captain Law- 
rence a letter, proposing a meeting any time 
within two months in any latitude and longi- 
tude he might choose. Unfortunately, this let- 
ter never reached Lawrence. On the first day 
of June, 1813, the Shannon stood in toward 
President's Roads, expecting an answer from 
Lawrence to Captain Broke 's challenge. Law- 
rence, however, took the Shannon's appear- 
ance as a challenge, and, lifting his anchor, 
made sail to meet her. 

As soon as the anchor was up, Lawrence 

226 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

had a flag hoisted with the inscription "Free 
trade and sailors* rights.'* He then made a 
short address to his men, which was coldly 
received, not a cheer being raised at the prospect 
of meeting the enemy. 

The ship was cleared for action, and as she 
passed out, the Shannon was waiting for her on 
an easy bowline. Both ships proceeded under 
a good breeze until about thirty miles beyond 
Boston Light. They then came together under 
short fighting canvas, and in the manoeuvring 
for a few moments Lawrence was in position to 
rake his enemy; but whether it escaped him, or 
he preferred to fight it out alongside, is not 
known. 

A few minutes before six, the ships being 
fairly alongside, and not more than fifty yards 
apart, the Shannon fired her first broadside, and 
was immediately answered by the Chesapeake. 
The effect of these first broadsides in smooth 
water and close range was terrific. Three men 
at the Chesapeake's wheel were shot down one 
after another. Within six minutes her sails 
were so shot to pieces that she came up into 
the wind and was raked repeatedly. In a short 
while Captain Lawrence was shot in the leg, 
but kept the deck. Mr. White, the sailing- 
master, was killed, and Mr. Ludlow, the first 
lieutenant, Lieutenant Ballard, Mr. Brown, the 
marine officer, and the boatswain were all mor- 

227 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

tally wounded. The Shannon had not escaped 
scatheless, although the execution aboard of her 
was not to be mentioned with the Chesapeake's. 
Some of the British frigate's spars and sails 
being shot away, she fell aboard her antagonist, 
and the two ships were prevented from drifting 
apart by the fluke of an anchor on the Shannon 
hooking in the Chesapeake's rigging. Captain 
Broke immediately ordered the ships lashed to- 
gether. This was done by the Shannon's boat- 
swain, who had his arm literally hacked off in 
doing it, but who did not flinch from his 
task. 

As soon as Captain Lawrence saw the ships 
were fast, he ordered the boarders called away. 
But instead of this being done by the boatswain, 
the bugler, a negro, was called upon to sound his 
bugle. The man, in a paroxysm of terror, had 
hid under a boat, and when found was perfectly 
unable to sound a note. The remaining officers 
on the Chesapeake's deck shouted for the 
boarders, and at this moment the gallant 
Lawrence, conspicuous from his commanding 
figure, and wearing his full uniform, fell, shot 
through the body. As he was being carried 
below, he uttered those words which are a part 
of the heritage of the American navy, "Don't 
give up the ship." 

The carnage on the Chesapeake's deck was 
now frightful, and the men began to flinch from 

228 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

their guns. Captain Broke, seeing this, gave 
the order to board, and, himseli' leading the 
boarders with great intrepidity, sprang upon 
the Chesapeake's quarterdeck. At this the Por- 
tuguese mate and some other mercenaries threw 
the berth-deck gratings overboard, and ran be- 
low, crying, " So much for not paying men prize 
money ! " 

A young lieutenant, coming up from the gun- 
deck, was seized with a panic, and, throwing his 
pistol down, ran below in a cowardly manner.^ 
But there were still gallant souls left upon the 
unfortunate frigate's deck. Mr. Livermore, the 
chaplain, — the only officer on deck when the Brit- 
ish entered the ship, — advanced boldly, firing his 
pistol at Captain Broke, and made a brave defence, 
although his arm was nearly cut from his body by 
Broke in defending himself. The few marines who 
were left fought desperately, and severely wounded 
Captain Broke. All of these men were Ameri- 
cans, and were cut down to a man. The officers 
of the gun-deck tried to rally the men below, and 
succeeded in inducing the few Americans to 
follow them above ; the brave Ludlow, in fearful 
agony from his wounds, struggled up the hatch- 
way. But it was too late, and they were soon over- 
powered. The flag had been hauled down by the 
triumphant enemy ; the ship was theirs. The 

1 He was promptly dismissed the navy for cowardice on this 
occasion. 

229 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

battle lasted only about ' fifteen minutes, and 
seldom in the history of naval warfare has there 
been more dreadful slaughter. The Chesapeake 
suffered most, her captain and three lieutenants, 
her marine officer, her sailing-master, boatswain, 
and three midshipmen being killed, and her few re- 
maining officers wounded. She lost, besides, one 
hundred and thirty-six men killed and wounded. 
The Shannon had her captain badly wounded, 
and lost several officers, and had seventy-five men 
killed and wounded. 

The English ensign was immediately hoisted 
over the American, and as soon as possible sail 
was made for Halifax. Lawrence and his wounded 
officers lay together in the ward room of the Chesa- 
peake, the cabin having been much shattered. For 
four days Lawrence lingered in extreme anguish. 
He bore his sufferings with silent heroism, and it 
is remarkable that he never spoke except to make 
known the few wants that his situation required. 
On the Shannon Captain Broke lay, raving with 
delirium from his wounds, and only occasionally 
rational. At these times he would ask anxiously 
after Lawrence, muttering, " He brought his ship 
into action in gallant style," and other words of 
generous admiration. When it was known that 
Lawrence was no more, it was thought best to 
keep it from Broke, as it was known it would 
distress him greatly. 

On Sunday, the 6th of June, the two ships 

230 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

entered Halifax harbor, the body of Lawrence 
wrapped in the battle flag of the Chesapeake, and 
lying on her quarterdeck. The people took the 
Chescipeake for the President, and shouting multi- 
tudes lined the shores and docks. But when it 
was known that it was Lawrence's ship, and her 
brave commander lay dead upon her, an instant 
silence fell upon the people. They remembered 
Lawrence's kindness to the officers and men of 
the Peacock, and they paid him the tribute of 
silent respect. 

The funeral was arranged for the 8th of June, 
and was one of the most affecting ever wit- 
nessed. The British naval and military authori- 
ties omitted nothing that could show their esteem 
for a brave and unfortunate enemy. The gar- 
rison and the fleet turned out their whole force, 
the officers wearing crape upon the left arm. 
The coffin, wrapped in the Chesapeake's flag, 
with the dead officer's sword upon it, was brought 
ashore in an admiral's barge, the men rowing 
minute strokes, and amid the solemn booming of 
minute guns. It was followed by a long proces- 
sion of man-of-war boats. It was landed at 
King's Wharf, where six of the oldest British 
captains acted as pall-bearers. The procession 
to the churchyard of St. Paul's was very long. 
The American officers were chief mourners, fol- 
lowed by the officers of the Shannon ; and the 
presence of the wounded among both the Ameri- 

231 



TWELVE NAVAL CAPTAINS 

can and English officers was touching in the 
extreme. Admiral Sir Thomas Saumerez, one 
of Nelson's captains, and the officers of the fleet, 
and the general of the forces, with the officers of 
the garrison, came next in the procession, fol- 
lowed by a large number of the most respectable 
citizens of Halifax. The route was lined with 
troops, and the funeral was like that of a great 
and distinguished British admiral, — so great is 
the respect all generous minds must feel for a 
character like Lawrence's. 

His young first lieutenant, Ludlow, survived 
several days after landing ; but he, too, soon fol- 
lowed his captain to a hero's grave. Great honors 
were also paid him at his interment. 

The Americans, however, could not allow the 
British to pay all the honors to the dead Law- 
rence, and in August his remains and those of 
his faithful lieutenant were transferred to Salem, 
in Massachusetts, where they were temporarily 
buried until they could be transferred to New 
York. Lawrence's pall was carried then by six 
American captains, among whom were Hull, 
Stewart, and Bainbridge, — all men who had 
known Lawrence, and served with him when he 
was a dashing and brilliant young midshipman. 
Eventually, both Lawrence and Ludlow were 
buried in Trinity churchyard. New York, where 
they still rest. Lawrence left a young wife and 
two children, for whom the country provided. 

232 



JAMES LAWRENCE 

A poignant regret for Lawrence's misfortunes 
and death was felt by the country generally. 
His youth, — he was but thirty-one years of age, 
— his brilliant career, the charming generosity 
of his nature, and the graces of his person and 
manner made him beloved and admired. His 
fault — if fault it was — in seeking an action 
when his ship was new to him and ill manned 
and scantily officered, was that of a high and 
daring spirit, and was readily condoned ; while 
to this day the story of the Chesapeake is painful 
to a true American. 

At the battle of Lake Erie Perry's flagship 
bore the name of Lawrence ; but, like Lawrence 
himself, was unfortunate, and, after being cut to 
pieces, was forced to strike. Another vessel was 
named the Lawrence ; but ships whose names 
are associated with harrowing events are not 
favorites with either officers or men, and she 
was borne upon the navy list for only a few years. 
But the name and fame of Lawrence will last 
with his countrymen as long as the American flag 
flies over a ship of war, and the pity of his fate 
will ever be among the most moving incidents in 
American history. 



233 



C15 80 



C 15 SO 














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